Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Thursday confirmed that “only one-third” of a deal to conclude a delayed second review of the Greek program remains to be resolved, via negotiations, with creditors.
His comment came after nearly a week of whirlwind developments, which began with a Bloomberg article reporting that two-thirds of prior actions have still not be implemented, and which was punctuated on Wednesday evening by Tsakalotos’ visible displeasure with main opposition’s criticism and even a rebuke from the Parliament president, who belongs to his own ruling party. The embattled FinMin had demanded that he be allowed to respond to criticism during a Parliament debate.
“…Only the last portion, roughly one-third, of the agreement remains in political negotiation with the institutions (creditors), and it is reasonable that it has not been agreed to, or even more so, legislated,” a written announcement issued by Tsakalotos’ office read. His statement came after a meeting with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.
With a day’s delay, he also responded to charges by main opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying the latter “doesn’t understand the dynamic of negotiations; certain things cannot be agreed to if they are all not resolve in an entire package, as such, it’s reasonable for the government not to disclose its cards, until the other side does the same.”
