Samaras To Troika: Show Me The Money

After reaching a still mostly-secret agreement with international lenders, which included a big cut in how much money from a primary surplus would go to people most affected by austerity, Greece now wants a quick release of a long-delayed nine billion euros ($12.52 billion) installment in critical cash.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he would push Parliament to agree to the terms so that Greece can get the money when the Eurozone finance chiefs meet on April 1. They must agree to its disbursement.  Greece has a maximum of 11 billion euros to receive from the Eurozone and 3.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund.
Greece needs the funds to meet a 10 billion euro bond payment in May – the same month as critical elections for Greek municipalities and the European Parliament with polls showing Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives trailing the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).
The coalition government’s partner, the PASOK Socialists, have slid to about 5 percent support even after aligning themselves with  new political movement called Olive Tree, Elia, an attempt to bring together the country’s fractured center-left.
There was no word on what happened to Troika demands to break up professional monopolies,  speeding the pace of privatization, allowing supermarkets to sell non-prescription drugs and extending the shelf life of fresh milk to increase competition. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, who directed most of the seven-month-long negotiations, wouldn’t elaborate.
Samaras wouldn’t reveal most of the details of the deal with the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) except that the government will return only 500 million euros of an expected pirmary surplus of 1.5 billion euros to low-income pensioners, as well as the military, emergency services and the police, core constituencies of New Democracy.
Samaras had pledged to give back 1.05 billion euros but now has cut that in half and agreed to Troika demands to put aside one billion euros to pay suppliers and another one billion euros toward reducing the country’s staggering debt of 309 billion euros ($430 billion).
The administration had calculated a primary surplus – which doesn’t include what it owes in interest on debt, the costs of running municipalities and state enterprises, social security and some military expenditures – at 1.5 billion euros but now says it could reach 2.9 billion euros.
During a televised news conference trumpeting the deal but during which he provided little information about all the terms, Samaras said, “More than 500 million euros will be given immediately to 1 million Greeks,” he said – about 500 euros per person. He also said that members of the police and security services on monthly salaries below 1,500 euros would benefit especially.
Another 20 million euros would go toward the growing ranks of the country’s homeless, Samaras said. Another 350 million euros from the surplus is to go toward plugging a gap in the country’s social security funds. Samaras said the deal also meant social security contributions would be reduced by 3.9 percentage points.
Greece has calculated its primary surplus for this year at 2.9 billion euros but its size is to be confirmed by the European Union’s statistics service Eurostat in April. After that, Greece will be able to distribute the promised handouts. The beneficiaries reportedly include more than 400,000 families on low incomes and some 300,000 pensioners.
Critics said Samaras was trying to buy votes ahead of the May elections and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, who said he would revise or renege on the terms attached to 240 billion euros in two bailouts if he comes to power, predictably blasted the new deal.
Tsipras said Samaras had again caved in to the Troika and said the agreement would create further job losses and wage cuts with big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions already creating record unemployment and deep poverty.
“The only truth Mr Samaras told today is that the government kept to its pledges,” said Tsipras. “It kept to them fully and unilaterally – only toward the Troika, not the Greek people.”
Tsipras said the deal meant that the prime minister would forever be associated with the Troika memorandum. “Mr.Samaras is the memorandum,” he added.
The tough part now comes in that the government has to prepare legislation to go before Parliament which must agree to the deal. The coalition has only a three-vote majority and some members of PASOK were said to be edgy about some provisions although PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, who was made Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister after agreeing to public worker firings, has mostly kept them in line.
Samaras and Venizelos were due on March 19 to decide whether the reforms will go to lawmakers as one giant bill for an up or down vote or in several packages, which could MPs a chance to reject some of the issues.
Greece agreed to adopt 75 percent of the 329 liberalization measures recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Another 15 percent will be adapted to the specifics of the Greek market, while the remaining 10 percent have been put off for now, Kathimerini reported.
Greek officials agreed with the Troika to lower fines for the late payment of taxes and to disconnect the public sector mobility scheme from the need for sackings.
Administrative Reform Ministry sources said that firings of civil servants would continue in 2015, even after Greece meets it target of 15,000 by the end of this year. However, they added that this would not be part of a pledge to the country’s lenders. They would, instead, be the result of disciplinary measures or the merging and closing down of public bodies.
Another obstacle had been the Troika’s insistence that Greece change its rules on mass dismissals, which need the labor minister’s approval.
The sides reportedly agreed that the matter should be referred to the International Labor Office, which will be asked to arbitrate on the issue and the deal also cut in half  automatic three-year pay rises for new hires from 2017, a further discouragement for the country’s young suffering more than 60 percent unemployment and with many leaving Greece to find jobs.