With the labour reserve measure as a spearhead, the Greek government continues negotiating with the Troika to finalize the State Budget by Sunday.
Information indicates that international lenders dispute the sufficiency of the announcement on the labour reserve, and call for job dismissals immediately. Moreover, new uniform has not been finalized yet, while collaterals for privatizations, interventions in pensions, labour relations and closed professions are sought.
The first objective is to finalize the Draft Budget by Sunday, be approved by the cabinet in order to be submitted on Monday in the House. The biggest gap in the measures is the amount of reverses-dismissals in 2011-2012.
The Troika is frustrated by a list of just 300 employees (instead of 3,500) to be reserved from 151 public organizations. At a cabinet meeting on Thursday night, all scenarios were discussed, including dismissals in core public sector, as no compensation of employees is provided.
Officially, the government has promised for 30,000 reservists in 2011. However, government executives note that the issue of dismissals remains a prerequisite for the Troika. Possibly the negotiation would not be completed on Sunday, but with the completion of Troika’s review on Greek program.
As for payroll, the Troika is frustrated by the postponement of the measure for a month. It considers that this measure, along with the property tax would have reduced performance, thus it presses for additional measures in 2011.
The inspectors anticipate initiatives on privatization of OPAP and Athens Airport to achieve that target of €1.3 billion in September, and commitments on accelerating procedures. A bill on cutting pensions, benefits and deregulating closed profession is also pending.
(source: capital)
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