The Greek government on Friday evening maintained that “several issues” were resolved the same day in last-minute negotiations with creditors’ top representatives, talks that were held via a teleconference.
Athens’ positions on the very latest round of negotiations were circulated to local mass media in the form of a “non paper”, which cited a top government official as saying that “only a few issues” have not been resolved, “ones which we knew (beforehand) would not be concluded at this level …”
One of the remaining unresolved issues was clearly identified as labor sector liberalization, something that the IMF has consistently demanded.
“…Positions (of both sides) are well known. No one is surprising the other; a political discussion is now needed, we’ll see how this will be conducted at the Eurogroup; we’re satisfied by the fact that many other issues have been concluded, such as the (privatization) fund, privatizations and (the framework for) an out-of-court settlement (for arrears),” was the statement attributed to the unnamed official.
The government, albeit in its preferred unofficial manner when referring to negotiations with creditors, blamed delays in implementing energy-sector actions on a previous European Court decision, saying the Greek side wants to study the ruling.
Moreover, the leftist-rightist Tsipras coalition government also stated that only a “minor issue” remains in terms of finalizing what it has called countervailing measures to offset whatever new austerity measures are enacted. The “minor issue” was identified as the percentage of the property tax (ENFIA) that will be included in an overall package of measures.
“However, no one considers that this is an issue over which negotiations will get bogged down,” was the statement circulated.
