Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-09

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Important progress made in talks with institutions; talks to continue via teleconference- gov't official

[01] Important progress made in talks with institutions; talks to continue via teleconference- gov't official

Talks will continue next week through teleconferences either at a technical or ministerial level to resolve issues "that need more work, possibly also a political discussion", he added, noting the aim is to achieve bigger progress at the Eurogroup on March 20.

According to the official, the three main issues that remain open are the size of the package of measures for 2019 onwards, labour reforms and some of the countermeasures proposed by the government (for example a larger reduction of the ENFIA unified property tax).

The same official said the fiscal gap in 2018 is "insignificant […], doesn't create any problems and has been covered by the structural measures agreed in the past." Another open technical issue concerns the energy sector and the European Commission's Competition arm, which will be resolved, he said.

Separately, a senior labour ministry source revealed there are still disagreements with the International Monetary Fund over labour issues and also on the time when pension reforms should go into effect. The source reported significant progress during the latest round of talks to complete the second review and said this had also been noted by the institutions. At the same time, the source added, the Greek side was confronted by the IMF's "ideological obsessions" with regard to labour law, especially with regard to mass lay-offs and lockouts. According to the sources, the IMF simply repeated its known positions on these issues and refused to take European court rulings or standard European practice into account.

The Greek government, on its part, opposed any change to the maximum limit for mass dismissals and wanted to preserve the existing framework for strikes and trade union law, the senior labour ministry official said.

The Europeans, on their part, were willing to admit European best practices but were constrained by decisions dictating that the IMF must remain in the programme, the official added.

On pension reforms, the official said these were being discussed in the context of a "comprehensive, balanced package" of positive and negative measures that will apply after the end of the programme.

"The disagreement concerns the timing," the official explained, with the IMF demanding that the changes go into effect in one year while the Greek side's position, stated at the Eurogroup and also implemented in other countries, is that the changes should go into effect over several years.

"Any change to the pension system must take place over a space of years," the official insisted.

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