Reuters reported on Wednesday that according to sources who have a ‘good knowledge of the matter’, “Greece has agreed with its lenders on key labour reforms, spending cuts and energy issues, moving closer to clinching a deal before a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on April 7”
“Greece will cut pensions by up to 1 percent of GDP in 2019, two officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Lowering the tax-free threshold to save roughly another 1 percent of GDP has also been agreed, an EU official said”.
But he European Commission spokesperson Annika Breidthardt at a regular press conference could not confirm the report on this preliminary deal.
According to another EU official, the return of the heads of mission along with technical teams was not on the table yet, even though there has been progress since last Thursday, when the Greek government officials departed from Brussels home without announcing any results of the talks.
Athens agreed last month to adopt more measures, worth 2 percent of GDP, to help convince the IMF to participate in the bailout, which is sought by Germany.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has said debt restructuring would help the country return to markets before its bailout expires.
Earlier, a spokesman for the European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone’s bailout fund, said that possible additional debt relief measures for Greece could be decided only at the end of the bailout program. The spokesman reiterated that the possible measures could include the extension of maturities and possible interest rate deferral, but not the capping of interest rates.
Negotiations between Greece, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund – which has yet to decide if it will participate in Greece’s current bailout – have dragged on for months, rekindling fears of a new financial crisis in the euro zone.
Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos stated on Wednesday that “The aim of the government is to have a comprehensive agreement. This means that if there is no agreement on all issues, nothing has been agreed”.
“First is the staff level agreement, followed by the negotiation on the medium-term measures on debt and the primary surpluses for 2019 and then the legislation of the main part of the agreed issues. Meanwhile, there is a possibility to legislate some secondary issues that have already been agreed with the institutions. For example, we have today the extrajudicial settlement. Such issues that have not caused a political conflict,”
