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Victoria Mindova

A clear plan for the privatization of the Public Power Corporation DEI, a decision on non-performing loans and specific measures to combat corruption are the three main conditions in order for the support lending to Greece from Europe and the International Monetary Fund to continue and which must be met by Greece in the coming weeks in order for it to obtain 3.3 billion euro in June.

A representative of the European Commission, who wished to remain anonymous while speaking to foreign journalists at the end of this week, announced the news. Meanwhile, the country has received the next tranche of 4.2 billion euro to cover its external debt.

"The data on the development of the Greek economy in the first quarter of this year are better than expected," the European Commission states. The foreign lenders point out that despite the deep recession, Greece has managed to significantly reduce its budget deficit. It is expected that it will report slight economic growth by 2014, if there are no new obstacles to the implementation of the programme.

One of the weaknesses of the Greek programme is the slow drive of privatizations. The representative of the European Commission states that the sale of state assets depends on the bids offered by foreign investors. Last year, the political instability played a decisive role in the delay of the privatization process in the country. Today, the coalition government is winning the confidence of foreign investors, which has enabled the first strategic privatization, namely the sale of 33% of the state lottery OPAP.

The European technocrat believes that the privatization programme is starting to move at a satisfactory pace, but there are still obstacles to be removed. These are mainly issues related to the ownership of public properties, 1,000 of which should already have been launched on the market but have been delayed due to administrative problems. The liberalization of the energy market is the next milestone in the reform of the local economy.

The European Commission states that there are still officials, who are regularly absent from work without a valid reason. Others are continuing to hold their positions without meeting the necessary criteria or because they have submitted false documents to be appointed in certain posts. The public sector reform is another serious problem. The Commission indicates that there are still officials, who are regularly absent from work without a valid reason. Others are continuing to hold their positions without meeting the necessary criteria or because they have submitted false documents to be appointed in certain posts as stated by the commission.

"We do not understand why these people have not yet been fired. Each of these public workers should not hold a position that can be won by young, ambitious and well-trained staff to perform their duties responsibly," states the European technocrat. An inspection of the staff in ministries and major government agencies is underway at present and it is expected that a list of names of the persons who should be removed will be submitted soon.

The European Commission insists that Greece must fulfil its obligation and cut 150,000 public workers by the end of 2015. The supervisory Troika stresses that by 2012, about 80,000 state employees had left the public sector due to the early retirement programmes. Now, the difficult part of the recovery plan is to be performed, which includes the compulsory dismissal of guilty officials and of those who do not meet the specified criteria.

At the same time, real business is starting to exert an increasing pressure as regards the reduction of the tax burden on businesses in Greece. The representative of the European Commission states in this connection that there should be a dialogue on the reduction of corporate taxes but the government must comply with the budget. The Commission calls for taking immediate measures to improve the system of revenue collection and for finally making more tangible steps to combat corruption. The combination of the two will result in increased revenue to the state treasury and will further improve the business climate in the country.

"Although Greece is now close to zeroing the deficit, we must remember that this is not the purpose of the programme. The purpose of the programme is for Greece to create a primary budget surplus." So, according to European financiers, it is still too early to talk about reducing the tax burden on businesses.

On the issue of reducing VAT on restaurants from 23% to 13%, the representative from Brussels stresses that the issue will be discussed at the next inspection of the Greek economy in June.

The lenders must first be convinced that the financial situation of the country allows such a manoeuvre and will resort to VAT reduction afterwards. "If there is such a possibility, the government will decide alone where to use this surplus - whether it will go to strengthen social policy or to combat unemployment, or to reduce the VAT."

When the representative of the European Commission was asked to comment on the opinion of financial analysts that the rescue programme for Greece is actually a failure, he said: "We all agree that there are serious problems in the programme but it must be stressed that Greece has achieved great success both in the labour market and in the area of ​​competitiveness. The country has gained 10 positions on the list of the World Bank for the condition of the business climate. It has made more structural reforms in such a short time than any other country in the euro area. We will have an accurate picture at the end of the rescue programme."