Brussels, 24/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 October, a spokesperson for the European Commission said of the ongoing negotiations between the Greek government and the troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF) that, “substantial progress has been made in talks with the Greek government, but a few outstanding issues remain before a staff level agreement can be concluded”. He also said that it was “premature” to make any mention of granting a two-year deadline to reach deficit reduction targets, a request that was made by the Greek authorities a long time ago. The spokesman explained that such a decision was within the remit of Eurogroup, on the basis of conclusions from the troika report.
This information corroborates the ideas explained earlier in the day by a member of the ECB Board of Governors, Jörg Asmussen, who, after denying that an agreement had been reached, indicated that an additional deadline would also mean more financial resources being borne by Eurozone countries. The president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, said that, “progress had been made but certain things need to be clarified”.
Yannis Stournaras, the Greek Minister for Finance, informed the Greek parliament that an agreement had been reached with troika representatives on the €13.5 billion in savings required in exchange for payment of the next tranche of the €31.5 billion in aid, according to a report by a Greek press agency. Stournaras also said that he had managed to get two years for Greece to reduce its budget.
The raft of measures on which the different parties will have to agree will also need to be approved by the Greek parliament. The Treasury is expected to present two draft laws next week in view of the vote on 12 November, when eurozone finance ministers meet up.
On Tuesday evening, the meeting between the various parties in the government coalition ended in failure. The partners of the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, remain firmly opposed to the demands of the troika on labour market reform. According to a Greek source, however, “the agreement will be voted for” by the Pasok and Dimar parties because they know that this is their “last chance” to obtain the next tranche of aid before 16 November when, according to Samaras, state coffers will be empty. Fotis Kouvélis (Dimar), nonetheless, declared on Tuesday that he would not vote in favour of measures, “to flatten what labour rights are left which do not contribute anything to our financial goal and do not contribute substantially to address the competitiveness problem” in the country. (EL/transl.fl)