Greece: Euro Group calls for more pace from Athens – SPIEGEL ONLINE

It was a small bomb that was German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble in the afternoon just before the meeting of the euro finance ministers at the entrance to the Brussels Council building going up. “That would be perhaps even a proper measure to let the Greek people decide whether that what is necessary is willing to accept, or whether the other wants.”

Schäuble called for a referendum, with the date the Syriza government had threatened the Europeans.

What reforms for the Greeks are necessary, it could Schäuble also in the subsequent conversation with his colleague Giani Varoufakis no doubt. The Greeks would have to make substantial new proposals in the competent experts of the institutions. They would be expected through this, only then can you see. The story so far is on the table, it is not enough. The view most other finance ministers of the 19 euro countries like that.

Greece can not count on the disbursement of rescue funds until further notice: “More time and effort is needed to find a bridge in the remaining open issues,” it said tonight in a brief final statement of the Euro finance ministers.

While praising the participants of the meeting “the better atmosphere” of the negotiations. “On the Greek side has done a lot,” said Euro group chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem after the meeting, “it’s also about who reports to the Prime Minister”. The Dutchman had complained in the weeks before that the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had not been informed by his own people sufficiently aware of the negotiations.

Varoufakis stressed at the meeting the will of his government to a far-reaching value-added tax reform, which consists in particular, to unify the different tax rates depending on the island halfway.

Also, when dealing with the hard-to-use loans and the establishment of an independent Agency for Tax Administration, the Greeks have moved in the words of European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in the right direction.

But there remain major sticking points: pension reform and more flexible labor laws.

While the Europeans are willing to accept some changes to the Syriza government for example to protect the truly weak in society. But they ask for compensation, for example in the burden of the wealthy, so that the Greek economy can eventually carry into the future the burden of their social system itself.

A last week passed by the Greek Parliament Act for reinstatement of civil servants had the lending institutions seen as an affront, as it was not agreed with them.

completely unclear, however, is how long the money in Greece yet sufficient. On Monday, the Greeks paid 750 million euros to the International Monetary Fund, where the state salaries come at the end of the month, no one knows for sure. “It is the responsibility of the Greek government, its liquidity to have under control”, Dijsselblom said coolly.

Whether at the end of the time enough to even perform suggested by Schäuble referendum, is at least doubtful. Dijsselbloem warned that such a vote could be the implementation of reforms and the transfer of financial assistance to Greece delayed.

The euro partners want this time make sure that the promises of the Greeks in the negotiations actually in Parliament laws adopted are implemented. But that could happen only after a referendum.