Brussels, 08/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis assured his eurozone counterparts at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday 7 July that Greece would introduce economic reforms.
He pointed out that Greece has kept its commitments to implement the first six milestones needed for the release of €1 billion of aid and assured them that a second six milestones would be in place by the beginning of August. Once the second batch have been implemented, a further billion euro of aid will be released.
The finance ministers decided to give the go-ahead to the first €1 billion, which could have been paid out earlier if the milestones had been implemented on scheduled by the end of May. Bloomberg reports that the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, expressed concern about the slow pace of reform, but Hardouvelis said there would not be any further delays in implementing the other six milestones, initially due for the end of June.
A technical team from the troika of lenders (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) will start work in Athens later this week, before the formal monitoring mission that will arrive when all the milestones laid down by the fourth mission have been implemented. The remaining six milestones include new rules on administrative charges, new rules on the financing of political parties, a law on forestry and the dividing up and privatisation of a section of public utility company Public Power Corporation (PPC). The latter measure is highly controversial in Greece, where a strike of PCC workers ended on Monday. The leading opposition party, the Syriza coalition, is calling for a referendum on the PCC question. It was initially planned to put the privatisation of a section of PPC to the vote on Wednesday. (EL)