Brussels, 17/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 17 November, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, confirmed the agreement reached the evening before between the Greek authorities and the institutions (Commission, ECB, ESM and IMF) on a first list of prior actions to be taken to unblock a forthcoming tranche of aid. The measures on the financial sector which are not part of this list are also the subject of an agreement, said the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
According to Pierre Moscovici, the agreement includes common ground on the price of generic pharmaceutical products, a law on the Hellenic Financial Stabilisation Fund (HFSF) and the protection of the most vulnerable households from real estate foreclosures. According to the Greek press, the protection of indebted households will stay in place for three years. Reuters reports that the parties also agreed on a gambling tax to replace the idea of 23% VAT on private education.
The Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, confirmed that the package of measures would be voted on by the Greek Parliament on Thursday evening. “It was a difficult negotiation that was held under a lot of time pressure (…). The pressing issue was the bank recapitalisation”, Tsakalotos explained.
The Euro working group will meet on Friday to discuss the opinions of the Commission on the national budgets and may decide to pay a sub-tranche of €2 billion to Greece and to give the country access to the envelope of €10 billion earmarked for the bank recapitalisation, once the measures have been voted on at the Parliament. This working group was informed of the latest developments in a telephone conference on Monday morning. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)