By N. Bellos
The Euro-Working Group (EWG) will convene on Tuesday afternoon to again examine the issue of short-term debt relief measures for Greece, whose processing and, more importantly, implementation, were frozen last week in the wake of an abrupt announcement by the Greek premier for a 617-million-euro “holiday bonus” for pensioners.
The lesser measure announced by Alexis Tsipras dealt with the suspension of a plan to harmonize VAT rates on various Greek isles with the higher rates in the rest of Greece, something he said is related to ongoing refugee crisis plaguing a handful of eastern Aegean islands.
The session will commence at 14.00 GMT via teleconference, with EWG president Thomas Wieser chairing.
Meanwhile, a Eurozone source close to negotiations between Athens and European creditors on Monday referred to the now delayed second review of the Greek program (third bailout), saying that a new unofficial deadline is the Jan. 26 Eurogroup meeting. On a positive note, the source said the two sides are “not far apart”.
