http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/56684
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1234_02/07/2012_450109
Envoys lay ground for audit as creditors temper Greek hopes for concessions
A technical team representing Greece’s international creditors is to meet with government officials on Tuesday, with top-ranking envoys due to arrive on Thursday, but actual negotiations on possible changes to the country’s debt deal are not expected to begin until July 24, Kathimerini understands.
Technical officials are to lay the ground on Tuesday for talks between top envoys of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the troika, who are to meet with Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras on Thursday.
Stournaras is to be sworn in on Thursday before holding talks with troika chiefs who are also to meet Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and coalition leaders Evangelos Venizelos of Pasok and Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left, before leaving Athens on Saturday. In their absence, the technical teams are to focus on their audit of Greek finances. The report they compile will form the basis for the negotiations expected to start on July 24. There will be pressure for those talks to wrap up without delay as a Greek state bond held by the ECB and worth 3.2 billion euros expires on August 20 and there are some eurozone member states that are reluctant to release further aid to Greece before talks on the debt deal have been concluded.
Troika officials have indicated that they are open to hearing proposals for a different approach to implementing reforms as long as budget deficit reduction targets do not change.
A top ECB official repeated this again in a speech at a conference in Athens on Monday but said the focus should be on implementation rather than negotiation. The government “should not lose precious time looking to avoid or loosen the program,” ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told the Economist conference. “The first priority for the new Greek government has to be getting the program back on track,” he said. He also put a damper on hopes that Greece could secure the deal extended to Spain and Italy at an EU summit last week, benefiting from direct recapitalization of banks. “There are no once-and-for-all solutions, be that a banking license for the [European Stability Mechanism], a European transfer system or the like.”
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/56670
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1. POLICY STATEMENT The debate on the government's policy programme will start on Friday afternoon in parliament and will conclude at midnight on Sunday with a vote of confidence. Antonis Samaras is planning a new meeting with Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic left leader Fotis Kouvelis for Wednesday, in light of Friday’s policy statement and the troika’s arrival in Athens. The prime minister will have his first meeting with the troika of lenders on Thursday. Thursday will also see the swearing in of new Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Tsiaras. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou will be sworn in as deputy minister of state.
2. USUAL SUSPECTS Four close relatives of former AEK FC owner Makis Psomiadis were arrested on Tuesday and led before an examining magistrate, accused of money laundering. Psomiadis is in custody pending trial on charges linked to a massive match-fixing scheme. Those arrested include his son and daughter and two first cousins, while an arrest warrant is still pending against another family member. All of the suspects, including Psomiadis, are accused of money laundering through tax evasion. They are also accused of defrauding millions of euros from AEK FC accounts in 2002. The case will be tried in court on November 21.
3. POLICE VIOLENCE Amnesty International reports that police violence in Greece is not limited to "isolated incidents" and officers violating human rights can expect "persistent impunity". In a report published in Athens on Tuesday, the world’s leading human rights organization said that the authorities had failed "to acknowledge the extent and depth of this systemic problem" by classifying them as isolated incidents.
4. CYPRUS VISIT Potential lenders from the IMF, the EU and the ECB started their monitoring of Cyprus’s finances on Tuesday in order to assess how much emergency aid the country may need. Two teams from the troika met separately with the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, officials from both institutions told Reuters. Cyprus sought a bailout from EU rescue funds last week to help support local banks crippled by their losses on Greek bonds.
5. FREE ENTERTAINMENT Klafthmonos square will liven up on Tuesday night with music and poetry. Numerous musicians, including Nena Venetsanou and Manolis Mitsias, to name a few, will take to stage at 8.30pm. Live music will be accompanied by poetry readings - admission is free.
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http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1234_02/07/2012_450109
Troika key talks to start in late July
Envoys lay ground for audit as creditors temper Greek hopes for concessions
 SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras addressed The Economist conference in Athens on Monday. |
Technical officials are to lay the ground on Tuesday for talks between top envoys of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, known as the troika, who are to meet with Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras on Thursday.
Stournaras is to be sworn in on Thursday before holding talks with troika chiefs who are also to meet Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and coalition leaders Evangelos Venizelos of Pasok and Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left, before leaving Athens on Saturday. In their absence, the technical teams are to focus on their audit of Greek finances. The report they compile will form the basis for the negotiations expected to start on July 24. There will be pressure for those talks to wrap up without delay as a Greek state bond held by the ECB and worth 3.2 billion euros expires on August 20 and there are some eurozone member states that are reluctant to release further aid to Greece before talks on the debt deal have been concluded.
Troika officials have indicated that they are open to hearing proposals for a different approach to implementing reforms as long as budget deficit reduction targets do not change.
A top ECB official repeated this again in a speech at a conference in Athens on Monday but said the focus should be on implementation rather than negotiation. The government “should not lose precious time looking to avoid or loosen the program,” ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told the Economist conference. “The first priority for the new Greek government has to be getting the program back on track,” he said. He also put a damper on hopes that Greece could secure the deal extended to Spain and Italy at an EU summit last week, benefiting from direct recapitalization of banks. “There are no once-and-for-all solutions, be that a banking license for the [European Stability Mechanism], a European transfer system or the like.”
| Addressing the same conference later, the head of leftist SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, said no talks should be held with the troika unless Greece benefits from last week’s EU deal. In Brussels, meanwhile, the spokesman for European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, Simon O’Connor, played down the prospects for a concession to Greece, telling Kathimerini that it was too soon to say whether 50 billion euros in funding set aside for the recapitalization of Greek banks as part of the second bailout would be dissociated from the country’s state debt. |
http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/1/56670
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1. ONE BILLION IN The government has received the remaining one billion euros of the country’s latest bailout. The disbursement came from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the eurozone's temporary bailout fund, as was agreed on by finance ministers in May. “We received one billion euros and out of this we have already paid 450 million to the EFSF," an official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
2. DEAL OR NO DEAL Finland and the Netherlands cast the first doubts on Monday on the recent EU summit deal designed to save debt-stricken Spain and Italy. The Finnish government said that the two countries are planning to block the eurozone's permanent bailout fund buying bonds in secondary markets, despite last week’s agreement among EU leaders that the fund could be activated to stabilise markets.
3. EMPORIKI BANK SALE France's Credit Agricole is in talks with at least one bank to sell all or part of its Greek unit Emporiki Bank, a lender and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. National Bank said that it was in talks with Credit Agricole over a "strategic alliance" regarding Emporiki. Greek media reports suggest that two other Greek lenders, EFG Eurobank and Alpha Bank, have also declared an interest in Emporiki.
4. LAST GOODBYE Friends, family and colleagues gathered to say goodbye to Thymios Karakatsanis, who died on Saturday, aged 72. The great actor/director was born in Piraeus in 1940 and studied acting at the Art Theatre of Karolos Kuhn. He was known for his modern renditions of Aristophanes’ comedies in theatre and his rare but unforgettable appearances in classic Greek films of the 1960s and ‘70s. His last theatrical appearance was in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” in 2010.
5. TOUGH OPPOSITION Addressing an Economist Conference in Athens on Monday, Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras repeated that Greece must immediately renounce the harsh austerity demanded by its European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in return for bailout loans, stressing that the EU-IMF plan was simply not viable. According to Tsipras, it is the insistence on the austerity policies of the Memorandum that will finally lead to Greece being pushed into a voluntary exit from the Eurozone. Earlier on the day Syriza also criticised the government, saying it was going back on its pre-election pledges and postponing renegotiation of the harsh bailout terms until after their implementation.
6. WILDFIRE IN THE PELOPONNESE A wildfire broke out in an area of woods and farmland near the Tsagri bridge in Aigialeia, in the northwest Peloponnese. 22 firemen, 11 fire engines and a team of 24 men on foot were sent to put out the blaze, assisted by a helicopter and two water-bombing aircrafts. Firefighters said that the high winds were hampering efforts to control the flames.
7. SAMARAS IS BACK Antonis Samaras meets with Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis on Monday as part of the government’s preparations for the troika arrival later in the week. Earlier in the day an inter-ministerial meeting took place at The Finance Ministry in order to coordinate meetings with the EC, ECB and IMF representatives.
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