All issues open after troika meeting with Stournaras
All issues remained open after Sunday’s meeting between Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and the representatives of the country’s international creditors.
Talks “were conducted in a very good atmosphere and they understand our arguments, a top ministry official said, but added that “we have not concluded anything”.
The same source revealed the intention from the government and the foreign experts to speed up procedures in the next two days so that issues start closing before the prime minister and the finance minister leave for the European Union summit.
The meeting that concluded in late afternoon reviewed the meetings held throughout the past week. “Both sides continue to assess the activity, said the same source, adding that for the “structural keypoint of March”, i.e. the program of obligatory departures from the civil service by end-2014, the Administrative Reform Ministry has now delivered specific data toward meeting this target. In this context the foreign experts will hold another meeting with the minister of administrative reform on Monday.
On the issue of settling expired debts, the same Finance Ministry official said the discussions with the creditors have not yet reached a conclusion.
The single property tax subject also remains open, but the ministry official revealed that unless there is some sort of agreement on it, it is not unlikely that the extraordinary property tax paid through the electricity bills may continue for one more year.
