The Greek government will put labour market reforms proposed by foreign
lenders to a vote in parliament next week, as a series of crunch meetings takes
place next week.
The parliament will vote, despite a refusal to back the proposals by a junior
coalition partner's refusal to back them, the finance minister said on Saturday.
The 2102 budget law, which will bring a range of new austerity measure into the
statute books, has been demanded by foreign creditors, will be presented on
Wednesday.
A separate bill with new labour market reforms will be put to the vote later
in the week, Yannis Stournaras, Greece’s finance minister said.
Greece is expected to run out of money in the middle of November and the
government needs to get through a series of austerity measures to unlock the
next tranche of aid. The Democratic Left Party, which has refused to back the reforms, has 16
deputies in the parliament, with the government having a 176 majority. This
means the law is expected to pass, but it shows fracture lines building within
the ruling coalition.
On Wednesday eurozone finance ministers will hold a conference call on
Greece, two days after Monday's Euro Working Group where senior eurozone
officials examine the heavily indebted country's progress in meeting the
required cost savings required by the Eurogroup.
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Away from Greece, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Angela Merkel are due to meet in Berlin later today. Bloomberg says Merkel and Lagarde are due to brief reporters at about 6.30pm together with the heads of the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the International Labor Organisation.
Er....and where is Fats Venizelos in all this? As of yesterday, he too had said PASOK wouldn't approve the deal.
And what of the IMF's insistence that Greece is "way off track and will need a 3rd bailout"?
Seems like the world and its mother at the moment is keeping everything on hold until Obama gets re-elected...
So what happens if the Greek parliament does not ratify the cuts which seems almost certain? Even if they do I doubt if they will carry out the cuts. Especially the civil service cuts.
"Greece reaches Austerity deal with the Troika"
No,It Does Not.
There is no Deal:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4d...
So get your facts straight and stop manipulating.
Greece's junior coalition partner Democratic Left on Tuesday issued a statement saying that it is «not in agreement» with the conclusion of negotiations between the New Democracy-led government and inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank -- known as the troika.
The statement was issued in response to an announcement from Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's office earlier in the day that negotiations with the troika over an austerity package worth 13.5 billion euros were concluded successfully.
«Democratic Left has fought for labor relations with specific arguments in order to protect already weakened labor rights,» the statement said. «We are not in agreement with the conclusion of the negotiations.»
Democratic Left has staunchly objected to proposed changes to labor laws and the abolition of social benefits for families.
After a full four months of handwringing negotiations Greece has finally agreed to the arduous terms it must meet over the course of the next two years if the country is to keep international rescue funds pouring in.
From vehement anti-austerity advocate prime minister Antonis Samaras has been forced to take the middle ground - telling Greeks in no uncertain terms today that the negotiated belt-tightening measures are the only way of assuring Athens' membership of the Euro zone and keeping chaos at bay.
But the friction is palpable not least among his own coalition partners.The Democratic Left (Dimar) is still digging in its heals, refusing to endorse labour reforms it says will take the country back to the Middle Ages. [see 13.51]
The Pasok socialist party has agreed to the measures but only begrudgingly. And even members of Samaras' New Democracy party are far from happy about voting through policies that all know will worsen a recession already in its fifth year and at a level not seen since the second world war.
Much will depend on tomorrow's parliamentary vote on privatisations - widely seen as a test run of the vote on the new round of €13.5bn austerity measures. Once again Dimar and Pasok MPs are deeply unhappy with endorsing legislation that many feel strips the country of yet another level of sovereignty.
How many vote it down could be indicative of which way the austerity package vote will go in the coming weeks.
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