Mr. Juncker, apart from meeting with political leadership, will be keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), at 19.30 (local time). Moreover, the president of the European Commission will visit the Economic and Social Committee to discuss with social partners.
 
ESM chief Klaus Regling is in Athens as well, meeting with Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos. He will also be addressing an Economist conference on the Greek economy on Wednesday.
 
Greece received the disbursement of the 7.5 billion euros from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) on Tuesday, as it was announced by Mr. Regling. The money from the European bailout fund will be paid into two accounts, one for servicing Greece’s debt and the other for settling the state’s mounting arrears.
 
Starting on Wednsday, Finance Minister Tsakalotos and Alternate Minister Giorgos Houliarakis will be sitting down with representatives of Greece’s creditors to draw up a timetable for the implementation of a second round of prior actions that need to be completed within September, for Greece to receive the next tranche due then.
 
Meanwhile, speaking in an interview with Euronews Jean Claude Juncker said “something has changed because since the summer of 2015 nobody is seriously advocating ‘Grexit’. And this is due to the fact that we were able – the Greek authorities and the authorities of the euro area – to conclude the deal and this deal is respected by both sides”.
 
In fact, the European Commission would also find it difficult to cope with a Grexit and a Brexit discussion simultaneously. The British referendum on the European Union membership is scheduled for June 23.