By Vassilis Kostoulas
[email protected]
Commission sources on Wednesday told “N” that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned against greater pension cuts in Greece “beyond what was recently agreed to in Valletta”.
The reference to the capital of Malta touches on an agreement, in principle, between the Greek government and institutional creditors over austerity measures for 2019 and 2020, in order for the country to meet fiscal targets for those year — including a “harmonization” of social security benefits, downwards, in this case. The recently agreed to pension cuts must equal 1 percent of GDP in 2019.
The same sources underlined that references, mostly emanating from the Greek side, that a coming Eurogroup meeting on May 22 could formulate a framework for whatever future Greek debt relief is clearly a “hope” instead of an assessment “at this stage”.
Juncker previously gave an interview where he cited the pension reform and debt issue facing Greece, amid ongoing negotiations in Athens between the Greek government and creditors’ top auditors.
