Jeroen Dijsselbloem

National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis is in Brussels for European Union ministerial meetings. On the sidelines of the sessions, Hatzidakis is to meet European officials. Hatzidakis attended a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday, and on Tuesday he will take part in the ECOFIN Council.

National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis arrived in Brussels on Thursday to participate in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings.

Hatzidakis was to present the priorities of the Greek government in the field of economic policy at the Eurogroup meeting on Thursday.

The 10th post-memorandum evaluation report of the Greek economy is expected to be presented during today's Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg, which will be attended by Finance Minister Christos Staikouras.

Therefore, Greece is expected to take another step towards a positive direction, as another evaluation is successfully completed.

Indebted eurozone countries such as Greece or Italy need European Union grants rather than loans to deal with the impact of the coronavirus crisis, European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday.

Eurozone finance ministers will start on Thursday a month-long process of choosing their next chairman to replace Portugal's Mario Centeno who will step down in July, with ministers from Spain, Luxembourg and Ireland among possible candidates.

European officials praised on Friday Greece's response to the health crisis and stressed that the country will be in the same position as its eurozone peers in the terms of the support it receives from the European Union.

A messy compromise to unlock €500bn (£438bn) of EU support for countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic has been struck after Italy's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, warned that the existence of the bloc was at stake.

European Union finance ministers failed to agree in all-night talks on more support for their coronavirus-hit economies and their chairman said on Wednesday morning he was suspending the discussions until Thursday.

Greece has secured full fiscal flexibility in the battle to ease the blow to its economy from the coronavirus outbreak as the Eurogroup conference call that Finance Minister Christos Staikouras (right) participated in on Monday decided to allow all eurozone member-states to take every necessary measure to tackle this growing emergency.

The head of the Eurogroup Mario Centeno said on Monday he expected the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the eurozone economy to be temporary.
"We expect it to be a temporary effect," Centeno told reporters in Brussels, adding that the EU should carefully assess developments also for the long-term. [Reuters]