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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-09-07
CONTENTS
[01] Greece will complete prior actions by end September, Eurozone
official says
[01] Greece will complete prior actions by end September, Eurozone
official says
A senior Eurozone official on Wednesday expressed confidence that Greece
will complete all 15 prior actions required for the disbursement of a
2.8-billion-euro sub-tranche of bailout loans by the end of September,
though not before September 15 as agreed at the start of the summer.
He noted, however, that it would not be a problem if this was done by
the end of the month, since there was no immediate pressure on Greece's
liquidity. The official said he had been given assurances by the Greek
side that all pre-requisites will be met by end September while pointing
out that the 2.8 billion euros will cease to be available at the end
of October.
Two days before the informal Eurogroup in Bratislava, the official said
that Eurozone finance ministers will be briefed on the current state of
play by their Greek counterpart, with respect to completing the prior
actions. These include privatisations, the energy market, a revenues
agency and the management of Greek banks.
Regarding the new Privatisation Fund, the Eurozone official said this was
not yet operational since the appointment of the supervisory board was
still pending. He referred to some "surprises" in connection with this but
refused to go into further details, though confirming that French official
Jacques Le Pape was one of the two members proposed by the institutions.
The official said that the ELSTAT case was not on the Eurogroup agenda
but did not rule out the possibility that one of the ministers might
raise the issue.
With respect to the second review of the Greek programme, the official
said the representatives of the institutions will be travelling to Athens
in coming weeks to begin preparatory talks and expressed confidence that
it might be completed within the autumn, despite including some tough
issues relating to the labour market.
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