Deal or No Deal with EU?

A recent Reuters report suggesting a preliminary agreement between Athens and the institutions to conclude the second review of Greece’s bailout programme could not be confirmed even by the European Commission, its spokesperson Annika Breidthardt said on Wednesday.

“We saw the media reports on this; I cannot confirm,” Breidthardt said during the regular press briefing when questioned about the report, which claimed a deal had been struck on pensions and labour market rules.

“There is no deal yet,” another European official told Athens news agency.

The Reuters report in question had said that Greece had reached an agreement with its lenders on labor reforms, spending cuts and energy issues and was likely to reach a deal before the meeting of the review.

Another Eurozone source, suggested there might be some movement in the last hours, while pointing out that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. In order to have time to reach a staff-level agreement (SLA) before the Eurogroup on April 7, the source explained, it was necessary to have an agreement in principle at Thursday’s Eurogroup Working Group meeting.

“In other words, we must have something today or tomorrow morning,” the source noted, saying this will allow the mission chiefs from the institutions to return to Athens and give sufficient time before the Eurogroup to wrap up the final details of the SLA.