Economy, archive

Athens: 'Unbinding reforms' give Greece an advantage

Athens says new reforms agreed with creditors leave 'space' to assist pensioners, taxpayers and workers.

26.02.2015 - Update : 26.02.2015
Athens: 'Unbinding reforms' give Greece an advantage

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS

The "vagueness" of a list of reforms sent by Athens to creditors has provided Greece with an advantage, Greek government spokesperson Gavriil Sakellaridis has said.

Speaking in an interview with private channel Ant1 TV on Thursday, he said the "reform list" sent by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to Greece's Troika creditors of the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank left room to maneouvre for Athens.

He said: "It’s for the benefit of the Greek government and the Greek society that the reform list is vague in many areas and leaves margins in order to make interventions."

"It is not binding as it was with the previous government, in which there was a clear direction on a number of issues."

The government had "space" to modify its directions in a way which will not harm the interests either of pensioners, taxpayers nor workers in the private sector, he said. 

'Different direction'

Sakellaridis referred to "positive points" on the list, including the prospect of increasing the minimum wage in the private sector, in agreement with partners.

It also included provisions covering the protection of people's primary residence and adjustment of loans, as well as institutional framework for collective labor agreements.

Sakellaridis said a list of points for debate were included which were not contained in a previous reform list, including that the number of people who can negotiate over overdue debts would be larger. 

"You can understand that there is a very different direction in comparison to the past," he said.

'Great effort'

He said a number of legislative moves needed to be carried out, adding the Greek cabinet will convene and allocate priorities before the reforms start to be implemented.

He added: "... already there has been a great effort in order to find income. A great effort that doesn’t have to do only with overdue debts and arrears. It has to do with the freezing of accounts."

He said Deputy Finance Minister Nantia Valavani and Panagiotis Nikoloudis - the anti-corruption minister - would speed up the process of checking illegal or irregular accounts with the possibility of directly collecting money from tax evasion.

"Then we will be able to fill the gaps and find the funds that will then enable us to finance activities such as (national) insurance."

Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
Related topics
Bu haberi paylaşın