A deadline set its international lenders to show progress on reforms has come and gone but Greek officials said they are confident a deal will be struck on July 8 ahead of a meeting with Eurozone officials to pave the way for release of a delayed 8.1 billion euro ($10.4 billion) installment.
“We have made substantial progress,” Poul Thomsen, the International Monetary Fund’s representative, told reporters in Athens. “I hope we will reach an agreement on Monday before the Eurogroup meeting,” Thomsen said, according to the state-run Athens News Agency.
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras also said: “I am optimistic that tomorrow (July 8) we will have an agreement.”
Greece has been bargaining with the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) over long delays in firing public workers as well as other stalled reforms. There is a chance that the installment will now be released not all at once. The Eurozone meeting will decide whether to disburse 6.3 billion euros ($8.08 billion) while the IMF has to okay its share of 1.8 billion euros, ($2.32 billion) by the end of the month.
Among reforms being negotiated are 4,000 state jobs, which would have to go by the end of the year, a pledge which had been made by Athens. Greece must also redeploy 25,000 civil servants across its vast bureaucracy. These include some 2,000 teachers, whom Athens has proposed to move to other services.
Another 3,500 local police are to be incorporated in the national forces, a proposed move that has sparked strong opposition from local administration staff. “The so-called negotiations once again result in new measures for layoffs, school and hospital shutdowns, taxes and wage cuts,” the main opposition SYRIZA party said in a statement.
Local police have gone on strike until July 9 over their redeployment which they say is unconstitutional. “Now even permanent staff are being fired,” said union chief for Athens city staff, Vassilis Polymeropoulos, citing speculation that up to 30 percent of the municipal police will be axed.
The latest cuts will be enshrined in a new law to be submitted to Parliament although Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had vowed he wouldn’t impose any more austerity measures on Greeks buried under three years of pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions.
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