Technical Talks on Greece’s Bailout Not Going Well, Officials Say

 The Wall Street Journal

The European Commission, ECB and IMF are getting very little information, European officials say

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER and  VIKTORIA DENDRINOU

Updated March 18, 2015 12:22 p.m. ET

BRUSSELS—Technical talks between Greece and its creditors aren't going well, officials said Wednesday, with each blaming the other for the snags in crucial negotiations.

Teams from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are getting very little information on the government’s finances and other key topics in Athens, two European officials said.

“The line was that the Greeks aren't cooperating,” said one of the officials, summarizing the institutions’ account during a teleconference among senior eurozone finance ministry officials on Tuesday.

A Greek official said the technical teams had gone beyond their role as fact-finders and had sought to intervene in politics, continuing a frequent line of complaint from Athens about the so-called troika of inspectors.

The technical work is key to figuring out when Greece may run out of money and whether the rest of the eurozone is prepared to provide further support to the left-wing government.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed last month to extend Greece’s €240 billion ($254 billion) bailout by four months until the end of June. However, there has been little progress on defining reform measures in return for sustained aid, raising concerns over Greece’s future in the eurozone.

During the teleconference, the Greek representative said his government wasn’t prepared to talk about the country’s finances with technical experts and instead wanted European Union leaders to discuss the issue at a summit in Brussels, one of the European officials said.

“There was a general feeling that the Greek side is completely out of touch with reality,” said the official.

Representatives of the three institutions said that, based on the limited information they have, the Greek government will be able to sustain payments only for another few weeks, according to the official. They also asked the Greek government to hold off on moving ahead with bill that would provide new support for the poor, until they’ve had time to assess its impact on the budget, in line with the agreement on extending the bailout.

The Parliament in Athens is due to vote later Wednesday on the bill, which would give free electricity and food stamps to low-income households in an effort to offset the impact of Greece’s protracted austerity program. Those measures are expected to cost around €200 million and the government says they will be offset by other cutbacks that include reducing spending at ministries and adopting a new, more transparent system for awarding state procurement contracts.

“This is the first bill in five years that doesn’t take something from the people but will offer them something,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told lawmakers.

Mr. Tsipras also said Greece plans to push ahead with a parliamentary vote later this week to reopen the state broadcaster and offer taxpayers more lenient terms on arrears owed, without having been given the green light from international creditors.

The location and content of talks has been a sticking point over the last two months. Greece had pushed for the talks to be held in Brussels, saying the troika’s previous forays in the Greek capital have been disruptive and sparked protests.

But European officials insisted that some experts would need to be in Greece to access key data on government accounts, for instance, and to speak to experts at ministries.

In the hope of finding a political solution, Mr. Tsipras has asked to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on the sidelines of an EU summit later this week.

If confirmed, the meeting would happen on Thursday or Friday on the margins of the summit.

Greece faces yet another deadline Friday, as it has to repay some €350 million to the International Monetary Fund and refinance some €1.6 billion of short-term notes.

—Nektaria Stamouli contributed to this article.

Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at gabriele.steinhauser@wsj.com and Viktoria Dendrinou at viktoria.dendrinou@wsj.com