Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said there is still uncertainty on the terms of a 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) rescue package for his country ahead of a meeting of euro area finance ministers today.
“There are issues outstanding that must be resolved by the time the eurogroup meets,” Venizelos told reporters in Athens today after a meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and European Union and International Monetary Fund officials that ended just before 6 a.m. “As the prime minister said, there is agreement on all the issues bar one.”
The meeting with the so-called troika of lenders, representing the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, took place after leaders of the three parties supporting the government met Papademos and failed to resolve a dispute over pension cuts.
The latest hitch comes as the sides battle to complete a package that’s been on the table since July. Greece faces a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20 and is struggling to secure financing to avert a collapse of the economy that could spark a new round of contagion in the euro area.
Papademos and the leaders of the three parties supporting the government “agreed on all the points of the program with the exception of one which requires further elaboration and discussion” with the lenders, according to an e-mailed statement from the premier’s office in Athens. “This discussion will occur immediately so that it can be completed in light of the meeting of euro area finance ministers” today.
European and International Monetary Fund officials who met with Papademos said the government has 15 days to identify cuts worth 300 million euros, said a Greek government official who declined to be named and spoke to reporters in Athens after the meeting.
“There is only one issue, that of pensions, to be resolved,” Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy party, the country’s second-biggest party, told reporters in comments televised live on state-run NET TV. “The talks will continue.”
A separate government official, who also declined to be identified, said Samaras, Pasok party leader George Papandreou and George Karatzaferis of the Laos party all submitted alternative proposals to avoid pension cuts.
The leaders have effectively agreed on all the issues except for that of cuts to pensions, Panos Beglitis, a spokesman for the Pasok socialist party, told reporters after the meeting. He said his party was opposed to cuts in main pensions and that talks revolved around finding alternatives to make up for a 300- million euro shortfall.
Papademos was in phone contact with the three political party leaders backing his government during the consultations with the troika, said a third government official, speaking on condition of anonymity. No new meeting of the leaders is planned for today, he said.
Venizelos said he was flying to Brussels to attend the meeting of finance ministers. He said he hoped they would take a “positive decision” on a new loan package.
(source: NET, Bloomberg)
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