and expect Greece to implement a retroactive Collective Action Clause Law to attempt to ram the PSI through in just three days........
No commissioner issue, says Papademos | ||
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![]() Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, addressing a cabinet meeting on Saturday, stressed that "on the issue of pensions, an extensive and intense discussion was held with the troika. The reduction could not be avoided. The repercussions, however, are milder than what they have appeared. For someone receiving a pension of 1.500 euros, his pension will be reduced by 12 percent for the amount exceeding 1,300 euros. Meaning, it is beind reduced by 24 euros. As regards the issue of a commissioner or commissioners at each ministry, this will not be discussed. Permanent monitoring apparatuses are already anticipated and function for the implementation of the programme, that will be strengthened. There is no question of a commissioner." Papademos also briefed the cabinet meeting that during the discussions he had over the past three days with leaders of EU countries, as well as with heads of institutional partners, he underlined the need for the immediate taking of measures to support economic activity, a "proposal that was received positively" and added that he expects "that in the next two weeks there shall be a specific and substantive response to this request". The taking of decisions in light of the Eurogroup meeting on Monday, the promotion of the necessary actions that must be completed in the next three weeks in the framework of the implementation of the new programme and in light of the conclusion of the loan contract and the approval of the draft law of the Environment, Energy and Climatic Change ministry on issues of particular importance for the growth of the economy are the three urgent issues for which the prime minister convened a cabinet meeting. According to what Papademos said, last week the Finance and Labour and Social Security ministries examined a series of additional measures amounting to 125 million euros so that the package on curbing expenditures by 325 million euros can be completed and added that the measures were based on certain criteria and among them a "substantive criterion is for them to have a steadfast and not a temporary character, meaning that they affect expenditures in a permanent way and therefore lead to a substantive and permanent reduction of the fiscal deficit."
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http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0218/greece.html
ReplyDeleteGreece's Government has approved austerity measures sought by the EU and IMF to secure a €130bn rescue package averting a default on its debt.
The approval was largely a formality after Athens last week unveiled details of the extra budget and public sector wage cuts worth €325m to eurozone partners.
Lingering doubts over whether Greece can bring its mountain of debt down to more manageable levels in coming years could still hold up the rescue package.
Some officials in the 17-nation currency union warn chances of a deal at a euro zone meeting on Monday are little higher than 50-50.
A government official has said that the cabinet had also agreed to launch by 8 March a debt swap for private creditors with the aim of completing it by 11 March.
The swap is intended to accompany the rescue deal and will mean that creditors take a 70% cut in the real value of their holdings.
After months of often acrimonious negotiations, Greek hopes are rising that Monday's meeting in Brussels will endorse the rescue which Athens needs to avoid bankruptcy on 20 March when major debt repayments fall due.
At stake is a target of lowering the debt from the equivalent of 160% of annual Greek economic output now to a more manageable 120% by 2020.