EU rejects IMF jibe over Greece's bailout European policy makers took issue with the International Monetary Fund after it published a highly critical report on Greece's botched first bailout that spread blame for mistakes including the EU's refusal to consent to an earlier restructuring of Greek debt. An €110bn programme launched in spring 2010 by the EU and IMF after Greece was shut out from borrowing on international markets failed to "to restore growth and regain market access as it set out to do," according to the 51-page document released on Wednesday night. The IMF admitted to being over-optimistic in its projections of how quickly Athens could reduce a budget deficit exceeding 15 per cent of national output, sack more than 10 per cent of its civil servants and privatise some €50bn of state assets. But the report argues that European political failings contributed to the programme's lack of success, citing "poor implementation of reform by authorities, adverse political developments and inconsistent policy signals by euro leaders." In Brussels, the European Commission rejected the IMF's assertion that an upfront restructuring of Greek debt in 2010 would have been desirable. The [IMF] report argues that an upfront debt restructuring in 2010 would have been desirable. We fundamentally disagree," said Simon O'Connor, a spokesman for Olli Rehn, the EU's commissioner for economic affairs. "The report ignores the interconnected nature of the euro area member states," he said. Private debt restructuring would have certainly risked systemic contagion at that stage. Asked whether the European Central Bank had a mea culpa to make, Mario Draghi, its president said: "Well, not really." While admitting that lessons needed to be learnt, he added that market tensions and the risk of contagion were much higher three years ago. Often . . . you judge what happened yesterday with today's eyes. It's always very hard to make ex-post judgments," Mr Draghi said. However, speaking in Helsinki, Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, told reporters he agreed with much of the IMF self-criticism, noting he had opposed the measures as opposition leader at the time. "I was emphasising it, in fact criticising, what the IMF calls mistakes from the beginning," Mr Samaras said. We have been correcting those mistakes over the last year. A year into Greece's second bailout there are good signs: a primary budget surplus before debt repayments could be achieved this year, followed by modest growth in 2014 and, possibly, a return to borrowing on international markets. Athens stands to benefit from more support by its eurozone partners provided it succeeds in keeping reforms on track, even though rewards for good performance are not specifically included in the programme. The IMF notes a willingness by Greece's eurozone partners to provide "additional financing and debt relief conditional on Greece continuing to implement the programme." The carrot of further debt relief is being dangled before Greek leaders by EU officials, perhaps as early as next year if a primary surplus is achieved and progress is made with structural reforms such as reducing tax evasion by wealthy Greeks and cutting the public sector payroll. Political turbulence has subsided under a coalition government committed to adopting reforms, while Greek officials seem less inclined than before to delay or dilute reforms. "Ownership of the programme has improved as attested by the significant progress in correcting deficits and promoting fiscal consolidation and labour market reform - although reform of the public sector needs to accelerate further," said Platon Monokroussos, head of markets research at Eurobank in Athens. Next week's monitoring mission to Athens by the troika - the EU, IMF and European Central Bank - comes as finance ministry officials race to complete benchmarks on civil service and tax administration reforms and win disbursement of another €3.3bn aid tranche. "There's still a lot of political resistance to public sector reform even though the public sector wage bill is still well above the eurozone average," said Miranda Xafa, a former Greek representative to the IMF. Additional reporting by Peter Spiegel in Helsinki and James Fontanella-Khan in Brussels