Brussels, 29/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The technical assistance being provided by the task force since the end of 2011 is being stepped up. A fourth quarterly report made public on Monday 29 April demonstrates that the machine for the structural reform of Greece is up and running and beginning to bear fruit in sectors such as administration, the legal arena and exports. Nonetheless, as Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs stated, “it is important to maintain the tempo of reform, together with the commitment and determination shown by the Greek authorities and people in recent months”. This is particularly the case for the absorption of structural funds, which must also allow the injection of liquidity into the Greek economy (EUROPE will be returning to this issue).
A source close to the matter explained that “the past three months have been used to help indicate what needs to be done in the future period. During the previous three months, cooperation with the Greek authorities proved better than in the past”. By working on a dozen different areas, the task force, comprising 60 European experts in Athens and Brussels, cast the net very wide and its action has been stepped up with 30% more expert days and 40% more initiatives (200 missions and 24 workshops in total).
The most conclusive progress involves the review of 206,000 civil servant posts following on from public sector administration reform. On Sunday, the Greek parliament passed a controversial law simply making 15,000 civil servants redundant, 4,000 in 2013. Other points highlighted by the Commission include the efforts undertaken to introduce mediation, less costly in the Greek legal system, as well as the simplification of export-related procedures (including controls of fruit and feta cheese). Work on motorway concessions has begun again and an agreement on long-term funding is expected to be signed in June. With the new leader at the helm of fiscal administration since January, reforms are expected to become more coordinated, with the task force having a new interlocutor. Finally, hundreds of people have been trained to tackle corruption and money laundering and a register of bank accounts is expected to be set up soon.
The use of structural funds has also speeded up, with a 56% absorption rate. This is 10% more than at the end of 2012. These results are above the European average. Measures for simplifying fund management and control procedures have been put into place to this end. Nonetheless, fund absorption is still an area where much work needs to be done. If the money available is not used before the end of the year, the country will lose it. Structural funds can play a major role for reabsorbing liquidity problems facing the country and facilitating SMEs access to loans. More than €1 billion in structural funds will also be devoted to them and can be used as a guarantee regime at the European Investment Bank.
Our European source explained that, with regard to whether the public would accept the work carried out by the task force, they should look at the issue in the context of the low strike rate since the project was launched. (MD/transl.fl)