Greece is sending its economic reform plans to euro zone finance ministers today, a government official said late yesterday, missing a Monday deadline for submitting the list which is a condition for extending the country’s bailout programme.
Earlier in the day government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis had said the list, which covers measures such as tackling tax evasion, would go to the Eurogroup by the end of Monday.
However, the official later said: “The list of reforms will be sent to the finance ministers of the Eurogroup on Tuesday morning, while a teleconference will take place in the afternoon.”
The official gave no reason for the delay, but said the Eurogroup had agreed to this.
The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, spearheaded by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, staged a climbdown in Brussels on Friday to win the four-month financial lifeline after its bailout expires on February 28.
After the deal to win the conditional four-month agreement, the government of Prime Minister Tsipras declared the reform list would at least be decided by Greeks, in contrast to the austerity policies dictated by foreign creditors since they bailed out Athens in 2010.
The list would include measures to tackle Greece’s “humanitarian crisis”, regulate tax arrears and bad loans, and end the foreclosure of primary homes, Sakellaridis said. It will also include reforms to tackle tax evasion and corruption, fight fuel and tobacco smuggling, restructure the public sector and cut red tape.
A Greek national flag flutters atop the Parliament building in Athens’ Constitution Square, yesterday as the Greek Parliament was discussing its list of reforms. Photo: Reuters“The list will include a series of reforms that the Greek government will propose - and I underline that,” said government spokesman insisted. “Above all, they will be socially just reforms that aim to fight tax evasion, to fight corruption,” he told Skai television.
However, the four-month deal still depends on the Eurogroup approving the reforms that Athens intends to make today.
Tsipras had promised to scrap the bailout and the austerity policies which the European Union and IMF demanded in return for €240 billion in loans. Germany, the biggest contributor to Greece’s two bailouts, said any extra spending on Athens’s list of reforms had to be offset by savings or higher taxes.
“We aim for this list to be accepted by the partners. This is why there are consultations and discussions with the partners so that there is a mutually beneficial solution,” Sakellaridis said earlier yesterday.
With Greece unable to fund itself commercially, the opposition and fellow euro zone member Ireland say Tsipras will have to negotiate a third bailout when the extension expires.
The Brussels deal opens the possibility of lowering a target for the Greek primary budget surplus, which excludes debt repayments, freeing up some funds to help ease the effects of a long depression which has pushed unemployment to 25 per cent.