The EU Commission’s report on Greece, the second in the post-bailout period, included the ubiquitous recommendation towards Athens to accelerate already agreed reforms, while also containing concerns over recent moves by the poll-trailing Tsipras government ahead of this year’s general election, namely, a unilateral decision to raise the minimum monthly wage scale in the private sector.
The report is part of the “enhanced surveillance” regime that Greece finds itself after exiting the third memorandum last August.
The Commission report is unfavorable to the much-touted prospect to offer 120-month installment plan to taxpayers to pay off arrears to social insurance funds. The Commission also raises concerns over the lack of a finalized legal framework to protect primary residences from creditors and election-year proclamations of mass hirings in the public sector.
By all accounts, the Greek government has a few days left to initiate specific reforms that will “unlock” the disbursement of up to one billion euros in money from the profits generated by Greek bonds held by the ECB and Eurozone member-states’ central banks. The unofficial deadline is, by all accounts, a March 11 Eurogroup meeting. If EZ finance ministers fail to give the “green light” at the Eurogroup meeting, then the disbursement is bumped for months later, at the soonest.
