The meeting between the Greek Minister of Finance and the heads of Troika ended at around 3pm today with no final agreement. Reportedly, during the meeting all open issues were discussed, making it last for more than three hours.
Originally, the meeting had been scheduled Friday afternoon, but Troika requested two more days in order to collect additional data from the General Accounting Office and the Ministry of Labor, concerning the budget and the level of the primary surplus.
According to sources, the lenders’ representatives focus on the tax system and the “holes” in pension funds. The Greek Ministry of Finance has not ruled out the possibility of new measures for 2014, but they were estimated between 500 to 700 million Euros (instead of 2 to 2.5 billion allegedly requested by the Troika). The Ministry also said that they will under no circumstances accept additional measures concerning salaries, pensions and taxes.
However, apart from the new measures for 2014, the Troika has set a wide range of requirements, such as the release of auctions and commercial rents, the implementation of the program without exceptions for redundancy and availability, acceleration of privatization; the interventions in closed professions and markets; and closure of the defense industries of the country, etc.
The troika will inform the Eurogroup on November 14, about the discussions with the Greek government, and a week later, on November 21, the final draft of the country’s budget will be submitted to the Parliament.
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!
