Completing the all-important second review of the Greek program (third bailout) amid very tight deadlines until the end of the year is the foremost priority of the reshuffled Cabinet, with newly appointed ministers tasked with renewing negotiations next week with representatives of institutional creditors.
The Greek side must now fulfill 40 prior actions, or “milestones” as European creditors call them, between Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, although most of the actions entail less “political pain” than a previous batch required for the first review last May.
In terms of closely watched milestones this time around, newly appointed Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis, who was switched from the economy and development portfolio, must conclude sensitive negotiations dealing the energy sector liberalization, including a sale of a tranche of Public Power Corp. (PPC) shares. The PPC is Greece’s state-run and partially owned dominant electricity producer and provider.
Another deadline facing the ministry now headed by Stathakis, considered a moderate member of Tsipras’ Cabinet and more market friendly, is the sale of 66 percent of Greece’s natgas provider (DES.FA) to an Azeri-Italian consortium headed by Socar.
An extension in the deadline was requested and granted last month.
Both the EuroWorking Group and the Eurogroup, the latter during a scheduled meeting on Dec. 5, must sign off on the review’s completion, a prospect that leaves only a month’s leeway before the end of the year for talks on possible Greek debt relief and even discussions on primary budget surplus targets after 2018.
Both debt relief and lower primary budget surplus targets, especially the former, are increasingly significant for the embattled leftist Greek government, given that its public support – according to opinion poll results – is collapsing, while the Greek economy will probably end with a marginal decrease in GDP for 2016.
