Another key week begins for Greece and the EU

It is another crucial week for the team of Greek negotiators trying to thrash out a deal with the Eurogroup, meeting in Brussels.
With many expecting the leftwing Syriza government to be forced to make concessions, there are disagreements over VAT reforms, and
changes to the pensions system.
“My feeling is that even at the last moment, we will have an agreement. Let’s not forget that the EU is used to solving big problems at the very last minute,” says economic analyst Napoleon Maravegias.
Greece’s creditors want nearly three billion euros of new cuts so the country can run a 1% of GDP surplus by the end of the year. Greece says it can get between 0.5% and 0.7% without the extra cuts.
“Prime Minister Tsipras and his left-wing government remain between a rock and a hard place as they know that they can’t satisfy the country’s creditors without losing credibility with their electorate. But as time is running short for Greece, they will soon have to make a final choice, no matter how hard this may be either for the country’s economy or for SYRIZA’s political future,” says euronews’ Stamatis Giannisis in Athens.

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Greece makes IMF payment but reverses reforms

Greece’s left-wing Syriza government has paid 200 million euros back to the IMF but has also reversed a number of reforms demanded by its international creditors.

They include the rehiring of 13,000 civil servants, and scraps their annual reviews and promotion-on-merit schemes.

Municipal police forces will be revived and several thousand school caretakers will return to work.

Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis may be unpopular in the eurogroup for insisting on getting a better deal for Greece, but his cleaning staff will love him. Almost 600 women cleaners sacked by the finance ministry as a cost-cutting measure get their jobs back next month after protesting in front of the ministry for most of the last year.

Eurogroup meetings come and go yet there’s no sign a deal is in sight on Greece’s debt, as the repayment deadlines keep on coming.

“On May 12 Greece must pay a further 750 million euros to the IMF. But as cash-strapped Athens is quickly running out of money, the Greek government is resting its hopes on a deal with its creditors at next Monday’s Eurogroup meeting. But, this is in spite of the fact that the messages coming from Brussels are for now at least, not very encouraging,” says euronews’ Stamatis Giannisis.

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