Eurogroup Extraordinary Meeting In Brussels - Salgado Takes Part In Eurogroup Meeting Focused On Aid For Greece

The Second Vice President of the Spanish government, and Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado, will this Sunday take part in an extraordinary meeting of the Eurogroup members, with the goal of tackling the Greek situation and taking a decision on the activation of the financial aid mechanism for this country.

Sources in the Spanish Presidency of the EU revealed that the meeting, to begin at 16.00, will be attended by ministers in person and will therefore not take the form of a teleconference, as was the case on 11 April.

The formal Eurogroup notification confirms that an agreement is on the verge of being reached in Athens between the international institutions and the Greek government, on a three-year budget-tightening and reform programme, designed to prevent the collapse of the country's public finances and to restore its economy.

The EC, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been involved in negotiating the programme for the past ten days.

This programme is an essential condition for the European members to authorise the release of the loans, urgently needed by the Greek state to avoid an impending default.

In April, Eurozone members promised to loan 30 billion euros to Greece in 2010, a figure which would be supplemented by between 10 and 15 billion euros from the IMF during the first year.

According to agreements made at the leaders' summit on 25 March, the decision to activate joint aid for Greece must be taken unanimously by the 16 members of the Eurogroup, and on the basis of an assessment opinion that must be delivered by the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB).

The objective of this Sunday's ministerial meeting is to listen to the Commission's report and to approve the new figures contained within the budget-tightening plan.

In the meeting, ministers could set a date for the announced summit of euro-area heads of state and government, who are ultimately responsible for deciding whether to activate European loans to Greece for the required amount.