Regrouping after being told that envoys from international lenders won’t return to Athens next week to resume talks over delays in reforms and a disputed budget gap, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, and his Deputy Premier and coalition partner, PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos will have a sit-down on Dec. 2 to plan strategy.
The Finance Ministry said that representatives of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) won’t be coming back yet as originally scheduled, effectively ending any hope of getting an agreement before the Dec. 9 meeting of Eurozone finance chiefs.
“The government is in touch with the Troika to set the most convenient date for their return so as to complete the prior actions and the current bailout review by the end of the year,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We cannot go to Athens again only for the review to be interrupted again,” a European official told Kathimerini. “This has already happened twice.”
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras briefed Samaras, who was at a European Union leaders’ summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, about the latest developments. “We still have not reached an agreement today on several issues,” Stournaras told reporters. “The aim is to have this concluded by the end of the year,” he said.
Samaras and Venizelos will try to convince the lenders not to push closing or privatizing the money-bleeding defense industry EAS and settle differences over the firing of public workers and try to reach a resolution on letting banks foreclose on the homes of people who can’t pay because of austerity measures put on them by the government.
That was on the orders of the Troika which is putting up $325 billion in two bailouts and as Samaras has withdrawn a bill to provide debt relief for Greek households.
PASOK has said it will not accept an end to the ban on foreclosures but the Troika has linked this issue to the capital requirements of Greek banks, placing further pressure on the government to decide on what steps it will take.
Venizelos has occasionally barked objections about some austerity measures before relenting, which got him elevated to his position after he withdrew objections to firing workers at the state broadcaster ERT that was shut down in June.
Samaras was expected to meet on Nov. 30 with Stournaras and Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis to coordinate a united front for when the Troika does come back.
Samaras is due on Dec. 4 to meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels to talk about Greece assuming the symbolic, powerless rotating EU Presidency for six months on Jan. 1, 2014.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
