Brussels, 27/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Greek government has had a week of tight negotiations with its lenders, against a crisis caused by the Golden Dawn party and public discontent that spilled out into the street and paralysed the public sector for several days.
One of the jobs of the troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) at this stage of its mission in Athens is to assess implementation of the four “prior actions” laid down for release of €1 billion of aid. The prior actions include putting 12,500 civil servants into a mobility programme. The government has requested more time to implement the second phase of the mobility programme and is awaiting the troika's response. Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn told a Greek parliamentarian from the Syriza party: “The Greek government has agreed to revise its labour legislation. The aim is to introduce measures which, in combination with the recent reforms, can contribute toward attracting investments and support job creation. This is expected to include the revision of regulatory issues concerning the restructuring of enterprises and group layoffs.” Greek newspapers say that the talks with the troika will lead to agreement on the scale of the primary surplus, some €500 million in 2013.
On Friday, Simos Kedikoglou, a spokesman for the Greek government, said that Greece would not call early elections as a result of 18 Golden Dawn parliamentarians threatening to resign. The party is being investigated following the murder of anti-fascist musician Pavlos Fyssas by a Neo-Nazi connected it (see EUROPE 10925). Kedikoglou commented: “Democracy cannot be blackmailed. If we need to have by-elections, they will be held in the constituencies where MPs have to be replaced.'
EFSF will not write off some of the Greek debt. Even after the German elections, the eurozone is not changing its line on viability of the Greek debt. Klaus Regling, managing director of the ESM/EFSF, the main public lender to Greece, said that writing off some of the Greek debt would not be necessary and it made no sense to simply have a debt-GDP ratio, because what was important was how the debt was financed. He pointed out that the loans had been granted on extremely favourable terms - average maturity of thirty years and very low interest rates. (EL/transl.fl)