European finance ministers met on Friday at the informal Eurogroup summit in Bratislava and expressed concerns that Greece was falling behind schedule in its obligations.
There was concern and pressure for Greece on Friday’s Eurogroup meeting over its progress in applying the conditions of the bailout package as it seeks the next tranche of aid, with Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling telling reporters ahead of the meeting that he is ‘’ not feeling very good about Greece, agreements are there to be implemented”.
Schelling joined others in saying the aid release would be linked to the agreed conditions and pushing Greece to move faster.
The head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that no more time could be wasted adding that the pressure on Greece to perform was ‘back on’.
On the other hand, a surprisingly softer approach was taken by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble who suggested that Greece still had time to fulfil its bailout conditions and receive the estimated 2.8 billion euros in aid.
“Today is September 9, so there is still time for Greece,” Schaeuble told reporters. “It’s not new that, with Greece, we see the implementation of the measures that have been agreed towards the final phase of the time frame”. “At the end of the month I hope that we see a lot more progress.”