Greek government officials had said this week that the talks on
the third bailout program worth up to 86 billion euros ($94 billion)
would start in Athens on Friday after negotiations had previously
been held in Brussels - away from the public glare.
But representatives of Greece's creditor institutions - the European
Commission, the European Central Bank and IMF - said they could not
begin until the right location was found, given the talks'
sensitivity and the widespread public anger about austerity policies
imposed under the first two bailouts.
"There are some logistical issues to solve, notably security-wise,"
a European Commission official said. "Several options are on the
table," the official said, without giving more details.
The Greek parliament has already approved two packages of reform
measures, a prerequisite for starting the formal negotiations to
hammer out details of the new bailout.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/25/images/ads/current/memorial_home_sda_061115.png) However, another source close to the talks said Greece had been
asked to do more on reforms before top international officials could
come to Athens.
The government of leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held five
months of acrimonious talks with the creditors before they finally
offered to start talks on a new bailout - and only after the
government missed a debt repayment to the International Monetary
Fund and had to close local banks for three weeks.
Tsipras accepted the creditors' terms even though Greek voters had
rejected an earlier offer in a referendum.
Athens hopes this time the negotiations will be quick and can be
concluded by Aug. 12 so the deal can get parliamentary approval
before a bond repayment to the ECB falls due on Aug. 20.
At the moment, only technical talks are under way to sort out
logistical issues. One government official said he hoped
negotiations with the institutions' mission chiefs could start on
Saturday.
A European Commission spokeswoman said only that negotiators from
the institutions, including the European Stability Mechanism rescue
fund, were expected to go to Athens "in the coming days".
"DIFFICULT"
Sensitivities are high in Greece over the presence of top officials
associated with the much-hated austerity policies which deepened the
country's long economic depression.
Mission chiefs from the Commission, ECB and IMF have not been back
since Tsipras's Syriza party came to power in January, with the then
finance minister Yanis Varoufakis insisting at the time talks should
take place in Brussels.
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Varoufakis, who has since left the government and attacked the
reforms, had said in May that "motorcades" of the creditors'
representatives moving around the Greek capital were humiliating.
When they get under way, the bailout talks will deal both with a new
memorandum of understanding on actions Greece has to take and with
the loans it should obtain in return.
Greece's creditors want to see it agree and implement tax increases,
spending cuts and economic reforms in return for the third bailout.
In a sign of the problems faced by Greece and its lenders, the
country's most influential think tank predicted on Thursday a sharp
drop back into recession.
The extent of the IMF's participation is still unclear once its
current program expires next year. It says Greece's public debt must
be restructured if the bailout is to have any chance of success but
faces resistance from its EU partners.
On Friday, the Finance Ministry said Greece had formally submitted a
request to the IMF for a new loan facility after IMF Spokesman Gerry
Rice said a requirement for a new program was that Athens invite the
Fund for talks.
"We would like to inform you that we are seeking a new loan facility
from the International Monetary Fund," Finance Minister Euclid
Tsakalotos wrote in a July 23-dated letter to IMF chief Christine
Lagarde. "We look forward to continued cooperation with the Fund."
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($1 = 0.9141 euros)
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels, Lefteris Papadimas,
Ingrid Melander, Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, Renee Maltezou and
Karolina Tagaris in Athens; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by
David Stamp and Alison Williams)
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