Greek Gov't to Present Five-Point Package in Eurogroup
Tuesday, 10 February 2015
The Greek government will bring a five-point package during Wednesday's extraordinary Eurogroup meeting, sources at the finance ministry said on Monday. They said the aim was to reach an agreement by the following Eurogroup meeting on February 16 and to give the government the necessary time by the end of August to draft a new contract, which will replace the memorandum.
The sources said the Greek proposal envisages:
- a bridge agreement until the end of August and from September 1st to have a final contract between Greece and its partners,
- a 30 pct of “toxic” commitments of the memorandum, such as a dismantling of the labour market, will be replaced by 10 reforms to be recommended by the Greek government in cooperation with the OECD. These reforms will not include a reform of the pension system.
- changing targets for primary surpluses, starting this year. The government believes that a target for a budget primary surplus of 3.0 pct of GDP in 2015 was not realistic and must be reduced to 1.5 pct of GDP, given the fact that the primary surplus for 2014 was 1.49 pct of GDP.
- begin a negotiation on the country’s public debt through a swap menu
- immediately dealing with a humanitarian crisis in the country.