Greek government officials are racing to complete a list of reform proposals that will be scrutinised by the country’s international creditors this week as Athens seeks an extension to its €240bn (£177bn) bailout.
Finance ministry experts have spent the weekend finalising the fiscal and structural measures that Athens’ left-led government will submit under the terms of an agreement reached at a eurozone summit last Friday.
Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, sent draft proposals to creditors at the European Union, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday, in order to receive feedback before making a formal submission by Monday’s deadline.
If the reforms are accepted, Friday’s tentative agreement for a vital four-month loan extension will go ahead.
“We are compiling a list of proposals to make the Greek civil service more effective and to combat tax evasion,” the minister of state, Nikos Pappas, told Mega TV on Sunday.
Claiming Greece was “at the start of a new phase” as it prepares for a four-month reprieve that will allow it to devise its own economic agenda, the politician said the inventory would include labour law reforms and changes to legislation regarding non-performing loans.
Both are seen as especially sensitive for a nation worn down by five years of gruelling austerity – the price of its rescue funds.
Alexis Tsipras’s government, catapulted into power a month ago, is playing a delicate balancing act between placating the bodies keeping Greece afloat and sticking to the anti-austerity policies on which it was elected.
In Friday’s outline agreement, the administration won time, “ownership” of its reform programme, and a sizeable reduction in the scale of its primary surplus – the difference between state expenditure and income once interest payments are stripped out.
It was also forced, however, to give considerable ground in agreeing to an accord that staved off the prospect of a financial collapse, with the Greek banking system relying on ECB support.
Concessions included seeking an extension to the bailout and agreeing to further oversight from the EU, ECB and IMF. Capital flight on the day the deal was announced had reached €1bn as worried depositors rushed to withdraw funds from accounts.
Highlighting the difficulties the government would almost certainly face, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, conceded on Friday that Athens would have “a hard time explaining the deal to Greek voters”. On Sunday, that premonition appeared to come true.
There were signs of dissent within Tsipras’s radical left Syriza party over the concessions made in Brussels. Piling on the pressure, the veteran leftist, second world war hero and Euro MP, Manolis Glezos, not only lambasted the deal but called on Greeks to rise up against it.
“I apologise to the Greek people that I cooperated in this illusion,” the 92-year-old wrote on his blog. “Some claim that as part of a deal you have to back down.
First of all, there can be no compromise between the oppressor and oppressed, just as there cannot between the slave and the tyrant, the only solution is freedom.”
Of particular ire, he said, was the government’s decision to allow the hated “troika” of auditors representing the country’s foreign lenders to continue supervising Greece’s economic progress by renaming it “the institutions”.
“That’s like baptising meat as fish. You don’t change the previous situation,” he said.
Syriza responded with a terse statement, saying: “It is likely Manolis Glezos is not well-informed about the hard and persistent negotiations which are continuing.These are negotiations [whose aim] is to reclaim the dignity of the Greek people.”
Earlier, the deputy minister of administrative reform, Giorgos Katrougalos, had announced he would resign if “red lines” were crossed.
Greek efforts to fine-tune the reforms it will put on the table on Monday came as several senior German politicians warned that it was now or never for Athens.
“The Greeks have to do their homework now,” said Volker Kauder, who heads Angela Merkel’s conservative party in the bundestag.
“Then an extension of the aid programme can be approved,” he told the weekend edition of Welt am Sonntag. “Greece has finally realised that it cannot turn a blind eye to reality.”
Thomas Oppermann, who represents Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the SPD, said while it was positive that Greece had shown willing to press ahead with long-overdue structural change, “it really has to happen now”.
Varoufakis said he was confident the measures would be accepted. If deemed insufficient, Friday’s agreement would be dead and buried, he said on Saturday.
Eurozone finance ministers are expected to speak via teleconference on Tuesday about Athens’ proposals, which have to be approved by several parliaments including the 300-seat Greek house.
theguardian.com
Finance ministry experts have spent the weekend finalising the fiscal and structural measures that Athens’ left-led government will submit under the terms of an agreement reached at a eurozone summit last Friday.
Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, sent draft proposals to creditors at the European Union, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday, in order to receive feedback before making a formal submission by Monday’s deadline.
If the reforms are accepted, Friday’s tentative agreement for a vital four-month loan extension will go ahead.
“We are compiling a list of proposals to make the Greek civil service more effective and to combat tax evasion,” the minister of state, Nikos Pappas, told Mega TV on Sunday.
Claiming Greece was “at the start of a new phase” as it prepares for a four-month reprieve that will allow it to devise its own economic agenda, the politician said the inventory would include labour law reforms and changes to legislation regarding non-performing loans.
Both are seen as especially sensitive for a nation worn down by five years of gruelling austerity – the price of its rescue funds.
Alexis Tsipras’s government, catapulted into power a month ago, is playing a delicate balancing act between placating the bodies keeping Greece afloat and sticking to the anti-austerity policies on which it was elected.
In Friday’s outline agreement, the administration won time, “ownership” of its reform programme, and a sizeable reduction in the scale of its primary surplus – the difference between state expenditure and income once interest payments are stripped out.
It was also forced, however, to give considerable ground in agreeing to an accord that staved off the prospect of a financial collapse, with the Greek banking system relying on ECB support.
Concessions included seeking an extension to the bailout and agreeing to further oversight from the EU, ECB and IMF. Capital flight on the day the deal was announced had reached €1bn as worried depositors rushed to withdraw funds from accounts.
Highlighting the difficulties the government would almost certainly face, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, conceded on Friday that Athens would have “a hard time explaining the deal to Greek voters”. On Sunday, that premonition appeared to come true.
There were signs of dissent within Tsipras’s radical left Syriza party over the concessions made in Brussels. Piling on the pressure, the veteran leftist, second world war hero and Euro MP, Manolis Glezos, not only lambasted the deal but called on Greeks to rise up against it.
“I apologise to the Greek people that I cooperated in this illusion,” the 92-year-old wrote on his blog. “Some claim that as part of a deal you have to back down.
First of all, there can be no compromise between the oppressor and oppressed, just as there cannot between the slave and the tyrant, the only solution is freedom.”
Of particular ire, he said, was the government’s decision to allow the hated “troika” of auditors representing the country’s foreign lenders to continue supervising Greece’s economic progress by renaming it “the institutions”.
“That’s like baptising meat as fish. You don’t change the previous situation,” he said.
Syriza responded with a terse statement, saying: “It is likely Manolis Glezos is not well-informed about the hard and persistent negotiations which are continuing.These are negotiations [whose aim] is to reclaim the dignity of the Greek people.”
Earlier, the deputy minister of administrative reform, Giorgos Katrougalos, had announced he would resign if “red lines” were crossed.
Greek efforts to fine-tune the reforms it will put on the table on Monday came as several senior German politicians warned that it was now or never for Athens.
“The Greeks have to do their homework now,” said Volker Kauder, who heads Angela Merkel’s conservative party in the bundestag.
“Then an extension of the aid programme can be approved,” he told the weekend edition of Welt am Sonntag. “Greece has finally realised that it cannot turn a blind eye to reality.”
Thomas Oppermann, who represents Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the SPD, said while it was positive that Greece had shown willing to press ahead with long-overdue structural change, “it really has to happen now”.
Varoufakis said he was confident the measures would be accepted. If deemed insufficient, Friday’s agreement would be dead and buried, he said on Saturday.
Eurozone finance ministers are expected to speak via teleconference on Tuesday about Athens’ proposals, which have to be approved by several parliaments including the 300-seat Greek house.
theguardian.com
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