Athens hopes Eurogroup will pave way for lenders’ return
Finance Ministry officials are hoping that Monday’s Eurogroup in Brussels will lead to pressure being put on the International Monetary Fund to ease its fiscal demands as part of the bailout review and for Greece’s lenders to agree a timetable for the completion of the inspection.
It is expected that the institutions’ mission chiefs will return to Athens this week but sources said the government will try to focus on these two issues when eurozone finance ministers meet Monday, hoping that this will help secure an agreement.
Kathimerini also understands that the key demands from the lenders when they arrive in Athens will be for Greece to implement tax reforms, to make the emergency solidarity tax permanent, to take a decision regarding the sale of nonperforming loans, to agree to reducing existing pensions and to withdraw or change the proposal for a 1.5-percentage point increase in social security contributions.
