Conditionality

Blackmail as policy

For many people within the last decade 2020 has been the year strongly charged with pessimism, shows a survey of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce (BCC) on the attitudes and assessments of the business community in the current year and the expectations for the next one.

Everybody realizes that the conditions have to be met, that quality comes before speed, that the strategy is not an invitation to do away with conditionality, Hahn, who is in charge of EU's neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, told an informal meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The meeting on Friday gathered EU and Western Balkan foreign ministers.

Since the first memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Greece and its creditors in 2010, one word has been the central point of reference: "conditionality." In other words, the conditions attached to the loans from our European partners and the International Monetary Fund are based on a certain logic: money for Greece in order for it not to go bankrupt and cover its current expenditures, as

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday urged the International Monetary Fund to show "good faith" in upcoming Greek debt talks.

"The IMF's role in the end of these talks must be in good faith and without adding further conditionality," Macron told journalists in a joint news conference in Athens with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

BELGRADE - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by James Roaf will visit Belgrade Thursday for discussions on the sixth review under a precautionary stand-by arrangement with Serbia.

BELGRADE - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by James Roaf will visit Belgrade during October 20 - November 1, 2016, to hold discussions on the sixth review under a precautionary stand-by arrangement with Serbia, IMF Resident Representative for Serbia Sebastian Sosa announced Wednesday.

The additional disbursement of Greek bailout funding agreed on Monday highlights the improvement in relations with official creditors this year, as well as the continuing challenges to program implementation, Fitch Ratings commented on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund will not join the Greek bailout program but will likely accept a special advisory status with limited powers that keeps it at the table, two senior sources with direct knowledge of the proposals said.

I am travelling to Spain for a conference where we will be talking about European values and the EU's role in regional and global foreign and security politics.