Mário Centeno

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.

Europe has to grant Greece some fiscal flexibility as the crisis-hit country struggles to deal with both the coronavirus outbreak and the migration crisis, leading economists agree in comments made to Kathimerini. The government expects some good news in this direction next week, but will not be pushing for it.

Eurogroup chief Mario Centeno on Wednesday announced the possibility of exceptions to the strict fiscal rules guiding the eurozone to allow emergency measures for containing the spread and impact of the new coronavirus.

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]

European finance ministers have agreed on the details of a relatively small investment and reform budget within the euro area, which will start operating in 2021.

The euro zone budget, known as the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC), is expected to be finalized next year and start operating in 2021, Eurogroup President Mario Centeno said on Thursday.

The euro zone economy needs more spending from countries that have money to invest, euro zone finance ministers said on Wednesday ahead of a meeting at which they will discuss the slowing growth in the euro one economy.

Finance Minister Christos Staikouras will present the priorities of the new Greek government at Friday's Eurogroup meeting before sending a letter to the European Stability Mechanism informing Greece's main creditor of Athens' intention to repay some of the loans from the International Monetary Fund ahead of schedule.

The governments of the European Union, which had given themselves time until the end of July to choose their candidate for the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have not yet agreed on the name of Christine Lagarde's successor, the French finance ministry reported.

The head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Klaus Regling, has left open the prospect of Greece not lowering its tax-free threshold as it agreed to with creditors, but Regling also signaled that the incoming Greek government's aim of lowering of primary surplus targets is at the moment hardly a sure thing.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos chose to skip last week's Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, where serious criticism was expressed against Greek government decisions. The minister's explanation for staying in Athens was that Greece would not be on the agenda of the eurozone finance ministers' talks, which he knew was not the case.