Naftemporiki — The third evaluation of Greece’s compliance to the bailout programme has started, and the Greek government got a taste the lender’s mood during Monday’s Euro Working Group (EWG) in Brussels.
The EWG meeting discussed the third program review ahead of the Eurogroup to be held on 15 September in Tallinn, Estonia.
Greek Alternate FinMin Giorgos Houliarakis was the recipient of complaints by EWG participants over delays by Athens in implementing 95 agreed prior actions that have already been approved by parliament.
These include reforms in Greece’s public sector, better management of non-performing loans, recalculating recently issued monthly pensions based on the latest social security regulations and pending privatizations.
Creditors have pushed for a legal immunity status from litigation for executives serving in Greece’s privatization fund (HRADF), in relation to their decisions.
According to reports, European officials also expressed unease about the continuing prosecution of former ELSTAT chief Andreas Georgiou, despite the fact that they recognize that the issue is dealt by the courts and not the government.
The EWG gave their approval on Monday for Greece’s exit from the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP), a more-or-less expected development given the recording of a primary budget surplus by the bailout-supervised country over the last couple of years.
After that the European Stability Mechanism will approve the disbursement of a further 800 million euro as part of an installment of the bailout funds. .
The technical teams are expected to return to Athens next week and the heads of the institutions in mid-October.
