The second programme review will advance without concessions on labour issues, gov't spokesman says
The IMF insists on a series of reforms that we believe they will not contribute to the country's competitiveness, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos on Monday (21/11/2016) said referring to the second programme review.
"We will proceed with the second programme review without making concessions on labour issues," he underlined in statements to SKAI TV.
Tzanakopoulos noted that the government seeks to restore the collective bargaining regime. It also seeks to clarify whether the IMF wants to participate in the programme and in what way adding that the IMF should not impose strict conditions in order to participate.
He also said that the government aims to have the review concluded by the Eurogroup on December 5 and have the timetable for debt settlement fixed.
Asked on German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's statements, he explained that his positions have been known since 2010 but estimated that the climate has changed as he has opposed to everyone, including US President Barack Obama.
"The debt settlement and the return to the markets do not mean that there will be immediate impact on citizens. It is clear that it will be the first step to loosen the guardianship regime," he explained.
The government spokesman also accused main opposition New Democracy of wishing the failure of the negotiation and that is why it is asking for elections. As he said, New Democracy wants a harsh memorandum in exchange for debt relief and insists on austerity policies.
Moreover, he said that the government has never spoken of a success story as it is aware of the important social problems and is trying to correct them. He added that the government has managed to reduce unemployment by 4 percentage points and estimated that it will be further reduced.
