A top member of the Greek government’s negotiating team in contacts with institutional creditors on Tuesday maintained that only “certain details” remain to be resolved in order to conclude a staff-level agreement.
The same source said last week’s negotiations with creditors’ representatives in Brussels, immediately after a March 20 Eurogroup meeting, were “political” in nature.
While a whirlwind of reactions swirled in the country amid reports that creditors are demanding, and the government considering, the partial sell-off of the state-run power company’s production units, the same source on Tuesday merely said labor market reforms remained an obstacle.
The prospect of a privatization of up to 40 percent of the Public Power Corp.’s (PPC) units, primarily the lignite-fired units in northern Greece, came from the more left-wing lawmakers of the ruling SYRIZA party and unions.
In commenting specifically on the issue during a television appearance on Wednesday morning, the former energy minister and current Interior Minister, Panos Skourletis, charged that the any sell-off of the PPC units would be a “rigged” procedure, whereas the proceeds for the Greek state would be meager. Skourletis also claimed private sector interests are working for the partial privatization, without going into details.
Turning back to negotiations, same government official did not specify when negotiators will return to Athens for face-to-face talks, although reports state that a decision will come at today’s Euro Working Group meeting.
Another official that spoke to “N” said that a return of negotiators necessitates that labor market reforms are finalized, whereas the government wants “to keep all the issues open until they are resolved all together.”
Meanwhile, other reports hold that the Greek government will sign a separate Memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) with the IMF, which will determine the sum that the Fund will lend Greece, and one deducted from the 84 billion euros in loans extended through the third bailout agreement – the “third memorandum” that was negotiated and signed in August 2015 with the ESM.
Assuming that the most recent “unofficial deadline” that emerged last week for a conclusion of the second review, April 7, proves true, then the next date on calendar is the IMF annual spring meetings at in Washington D.C. on April 21 through April 23. That venue will, ostensibly, witness whatever negotiations for medium-term debt relief measures for Greece, in tandem with decision on fiscal targets for the country after 2019.
