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Pressed to the wall, Greece again promises to tackle reforms

20 March 2015 / 19:03:56  GRReporter
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The Greek Ministry of Finance announced today that it would respond "promptly and constructively" to the list of information that the technical teams of the lenders are going to demand, as reported by Reuters. "The technical expert groups are preparing a detailed list of information that they will need in connection with the planned reforms and the development of the economic situation", notes the Finance Ministry in its message. It considers as positive the course of developments and believes that it will help the discussions held by the Eurogroup in compliance with the decision of 20 February.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the European partners agreed yesterday that the Government would submit a detailed list of reforms that it would implement to open the way for a bailout to prevent the bankruptcy of Greece.

In the morning broadcast "Society MEGA" government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis spoke about the role of the technical teams in Athens that, according to him, it would now be limited to data collection and not to the exercise of control.

"The joint statement makes it clear that the technical teams are coming to Athens to collect data whereas the talks about the technical issues associated with the implementation of reforms will take place in Brussels. This clarifies the role of the technical teams coming to Athens and it will be data collection. This is what the statement says," specified Sakellaridis.

He also expressed the government's satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting in Brussels, which involved seven sides and ended late last night, stressing that it marked a positive step. The government spokesman also said that the list of reforms that the government would propose would be within the context of the letter by Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis, and it would not include recessionary measures.

"No belt tightening measures, which will shrink income even more, will be applied," he said adding that such measures were devoid of any economic logic. "Belts cannot be tightened any more. There are other ways to increase public revenues," said Sakellaridis.

According to him, the list of reforms that the government will draw up will include a wide range of measures, from tax administration, strengthening transparency and promotion of business and investment to faster justice.

The government spokesman described as positive the fact that during last night’s meeting "the partners pledged that there is no probability of Grexit," clarifying the role of the technical teams that will visit Athens but will not intervene politically.

On the non-participation of Yanis Varoufakis in the meeting, the government spokesman explained that it was not accepted that finance ministers participate in summits.

Sakellaridis also stressed that the issue of bank liquidity seemed to be settling. "There are problems, but there is no danger either for the payment of salaries and pensions, or for the payment of obligations on the part of Greece," he assured.

Meanwhile, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras stressed in a statement that "the basic premise of saving Greece from a catastrophe is Alexis Tsipras passing the exams associated with the new measures." The former Greek Prime Minister noted that "the troika in Athens and the Eurogroup in Brussels" would be "evaluators" of Tsipras and that the "tests" would take place "at a time when Greece is running out of time and cash and when it is over with the lies that we have listened to so far." MP from New Democracy Anna Asimakopoulou told Skai TV, "The agreement should be submitted to parliament for discussion", adding that she would like uncertainty to end and progress to follow.

Tags: Greek governmentReformsSummitBrusselsTechnical teams
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