Brussels, 12/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 12 March, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, announced in Paris that he has signed a cooperation agreement with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on reforms to be carried out in Greece.
“We have to reintroduce reform as a necessary word which will make us more effective, reforms need to be seen again as a positive thing… We have to break with the chronic weaknesses of Greece,” said Tsipras at a press conference after a meeting with the OECD secretary general, Angel Gurria, who said the OECD would work in parallel with the 'institutions' (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) rather than in substitution. The institutions are monitoring application of the Greek bailout programme on behalf of the country's institutional lenders.
“I do not find this to be the right time to criticise the failed programme that Greece has implemented over the past years,” said Tsipras. He pointed out that in the past, the Greek government had come under pressure from the institutional lenders to slash pensions, for example, but was never pressurised to introduce structural reforms. He said the programme implemented in recent years was based on an internal devaluation, not on structural reforms, adding: “We've had enough of austerity, enough is enough.”
Quizzed about the health of Greek public finances, Tsipras said: “Negotiations are in process and as you know, one of the gaps is that there is no clear reference to the issue of financing (in the Eurogroup agreement of 20 February), moving ahead with implementing what was agreed. We will be clear and honest, and our partners should do the same towards Grecce. There is no reason for concern, even though there might not be a payment (of an aid instalment from the eurozone, Ed.), Greece will certainly be able to face its financing responsibilities.” He added: “If there is no payment, it means that one party is implementing and the other bringing it down.”
According to the WSJ, Greece is considering borrowing from Greek public institutions, such as pension funds, as recommended on Wednesday by the chair of the technical group on the euro at the EU Council of Ministers, Thomas Wieser. On an Austrian radio station, Wieser said that Greece had “reserves in the budget, reserves in the social security funds and reserves in state corporations,” and he recommended using these reserves to cover the country's financing needs because the eurozone doesn't seem to be determined to disburse aid instalments at this stage.
After a first round of talks in Brussels on Wednesday, the Greek delegation returned to Athens on Thursday, where it was joined by experts from a technical mission that will collect data in the first place. On Thursday, the Commission would only comment that talks had begun on Wednesday and would continue, including with direct contacts in Athens. (Elodie Lamer)