Germany’s finance ministry on Wednesday confirmed that its leadership has requested that Greece’s institutional creditors assess a recent one-off bonus announced by the Greek prime minister late last week.
In a written response to DW, the ministry said it wants creditors to examine whether the 617-million-euro bonus to 1.6 million pensioners – announced during a nationally broadcast address by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras over the state-run television channel – was compatible with commitments made by Athens to its partners and creditors.
Additionally, the German ministry cites the need to avoid any delay in the implementation of short-term measures for the Greek debt.
“The assistance program for Greece can be successful only if the participants adhere to the agreed to provisions,” was the statement by the finance ministry in Berlin, adding: “That is why we requested from the institutions to assess whether the measures taken by the Greek government are in agreement with the provisions of the program”.
A relevant ministry spokesman said Berlin is expecting a quick answer over the issue, so that debt relief measures are not delayed.
A lesser issue is a postponement of a harmonization of VAT rates for several islands with the rest of the country, as Tsipras cited the ongoing refugee / migrant crisis as necessitating a delay in implementation of the higher VAT rates.
