Greece seeks to reach bailout deal with creditors: Minister
Greece says it seeks to reach an initial agreement with its troika of international creditors in the hope of securing the EUR 7.2 billion (USD 7.9 billion) remaining in its current bailout program.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told daily Naftemporiki on Monday that Athens will try to come to a “preliminary conclusion” at the April 24 meeting of eurozone finance ministers.
Varoufakis added that a solution to his country’s financial crisis could only be found in the “European family.”
The comments came a day after Greece agreed to pay off EUR 460 million (USD 501 million) of its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 9.
Greece is in difficult talks with the three international creditors - the European Central Bank (ECB), the IMF and the European Commission - over a bailout program, struggling to convince them that it has a credible economic reform plan required to qualify for the bailout.
On February 20, a tentative agreement to extend Greece’s bailout program by four months was reached during preparatory talks between Varoufakis, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, IMF Managing Director Lagarde and Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
However, Greece was asked to submit a list of proposed economic reforms to the EU in order for the agreement to take effect.
Athens has submitted a list of its bailout reform plan, including combating tax evasion and streamlining public administration, to the creditors.
Experts from the EU and the IMF are going through the details of the list of reforms provided by Athens, which could unlock another EUR 7.2 billion (USD 7.8 billion) in loans.
Greece received its EUR 240-billion (USD 270-billion) rescue package in 2010 in return for adopting harsh austerity measures.
Greece’s creditors are urging the country to cut pensions and go ahead with civil service layoffs and a number of major privatizations, which the government expressed its opposition to in January.
On April 1, hundreds of Greek pensioners took to the streets in several cities across the country to show their anger at the austerity measures in the debt-ridden nation.
DB/HJL/HMV
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