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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-06-24
CONTENTS
[01] Creditors' proposals 'extremely harsh,' government sources say
[01] Creditors' proposals 'extremely harsh,' government sources say
ANA-MPA -- The counter-proposals sent by the institutions at 5:00
in the morning were "extremely harsh" to the point of "barbarity,"
Greek government sources said in Brussels on Wednesday evening, while
a meeting between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the heads of the
institutions was underway.
According to the sources, the Greek side was raising the issue of debt
but the institutions' reply was that an agreement must first be reached
on a technical level before this. Outlining the creditors' demands,
the same sources said these included a reduction in public-sector pay
differences, pension cuts, abolition of the EKAS benefit to supplement low
pensions, higher social insurance contributions by employees and reduced
contributions by employers, an increase in VAT on catering/restaurants
to 23 pct and reduction of a one-off corporate tax on profits, reduction
of corporate tax to 28 pct instead of 29 pct, while they do not mention
labour law. A meeting of the Eurogroup will begin after the meeting
with the institutions has been wrapped up and this may delay, the same
sources reported.
The creditors' proposals are 'absurd', SYRIZA Political Secretariat says
The latest proposals from the institutions are "absurd" and exceed the
limits of Greek society's endurance, SYRIZA's Political Secretariat
concluded on Wednesday after a sweeping discussion on the proposals
and the next moves for the government and the party. Sources at the
meeting reported harsh criticism of the creditors' demands, as well as the
government's handling, after SYRIZA Secretary Tasos Koronakis and Minister
of State Alekos Flambouraris addressed the meeting. Speakers said that
an agreement will be extremely painful for society and hard to support,
since it contradicts the party's positions, and several referred to
a resort to snap elections. They stressed that any agreement must
make a clear reference to a restructuring of the debt, otherwise it
would be very hard to get it accepted. If the prime minister was able
to come away with a commitment from the creditors concerning the debt,
many might have a change of heart when it came to a vote, since it was
considered a key issue for dealing with the crisis, party sources added.
Other party members emphasised that any agreement must be sustainable and
able to resolve the problems, not create new obstacles and problems down
the line. The meeting decided to convene SYRIZA's Central Committee on
Friday and the party's Parliamentary group the following day to state
their opinions on the agreement, if a proposed agreement was reached.
Addressing the meeting earlier, Koronakis said that any proposed agreement
must be evaluated by the party as a whole, based on SYRIZA's mandate
from the voters, while Flambouraris said the government's goal was a
"decent agreement".
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