Tag: yanis varoufakis
Pressed By Left, Greece’s Tsipras Vows ‘Thus Far And No Further’

Pressed By Left, Greece’s Tsipras Vows ‘Thus Far And No Further’

By Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, struggling to contain a revolt in his left-wing Syriza party, said on Wednesday that his government would not implement reform measures beyond those agreed with lenders at a euro zone summit this month.

Tsipras faces a tough Syriza central committee session on Thursday with many activists angered by his acceptance of bailout terms more stringent than those voters rejected in a July 5 referendum.

In a clear warning to Syriza rebels, Tsipras said he could be forced to call early elections if he no longer had a parliamentary majority, and suggested an emergency party congress could be held in early September.

At the same time, he is under pressure from Greece’s creditors to go beyond the two packages of so-called prior actions passed by parliament and include unpopular steps to curb early retirement and tax breaks for farmers, EU sources say.

“I know well the framework of the deal we signed at the euro zone summit on July 12,” Tsipras told Sto Kokkino radio. “We will implement these commitments, irrespective of whether we agree with it or not. Nothing beyond that.”

With Greece close to the financial abyss last month, the government closed the banks for three weeks and Tsipras was forced to make the major concessions on reform and austerity to open negotiations on a third bailout of up to 86 billion euros.

In a setback for government efforts to restore more economic normality, the Athens stock exchange will stay closed probably until the end of a fifth week because banks need to adapt IT systems to enforce limits on trading by Greeks.

A European Commission spokeswoman declined to say what additional measures Athens was expected to take before the conclusion of the new bailout, although she said earlier this week more reforms were due before the first aid is disbursed.

Tsipras said Greece’s primary budget balance before debt service would break even at best or show a deficit this year, depending on a financial situation that has deteriorated sharply since the imposition of capital controls on June 28.

The Brussels summit agreement did not specify fiscal targets but Athens had previously been expected to achieve a primary surplus equivalent to 1 percent of annual Greek economic output this year and 2 percent in 2016.

Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported that the creditors were willing to allow a gentler fiscal path taking account of Greece’s return to recession, provided Athens pursued economic and administrative reforms more energetically.

“PLAN C”

With the banking squeeze easing, the European Central Bank kept its cap on emergency funding for Greek banks unchanged on Wednesday after Athens did not request another increase, a source familiar with the decision said.

The Athens Stock Exchange has been shut since June 29 after the government closed the banks, rationed cash withdrawals and imposed capital controls to stop a run on deposits by savers and companies.

The ECB gave Greece the go-ahead on Tuesday to reopen the stock market without restrictions for foreign investors, but with limitations for local investors to avert the risk of further capital outflows.

“The Greek banks need to resolve some IT issues regarding the restrictions,” a spokeswoman for the exchange said.

European Commission spokeswoman Nina Andreeva, keen not to add to Tsipras’s domestic woes, praised the conduct of the bailout talks so far, brushing aside security and access issues.

“We are satisfied with the smooth and constructive cooperation with the Greek authorities and that should now allow us to progress as swiftly as possible,” she told reporters.

Intensive talks with officials from the Commission, the ECB, the International Monetary Fund and the euro zone’s rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, began on Monday.

On Wednesday, the two sides opened technical talks on energy issues, including the fate of power grid operator ADMIE, an energy ministry official told Reuters.

Under the Brussels deal, Greece committed to selling ADMIE unless replacement measures that would open up competition in the market can be found.

The leftist government halted the sale of a 66 percent stake in the grid operator, fully owned by the biggest electricity utility PPC, when it came into power in January. Newly appointed Energy Minister Panos Skourletis said last week the state should take over ADMIE due to its strategic importance and the government would look to alternatives to privatizing it.

Tsipras faces an uncertain vote in the 200 member Syriza central committee with sacked former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis leading a leftist faction that rejected the July 13 deal and is demanding a tougher line with the creditors.

Compounding his problems, former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis continues to denounce the agreement in daily media interviews and articles, accusing the creditors of trampling on Greek sovereignty and justifying his own secret planning while in office to set up an alternative currency.

“It was a financial war,” Varoufakis told Germany’s Stern magazine in the latest interview released on Wednesday. “Today you don’t need tanks to beat someone. You’ve got your banks.”

A Greek prosecutor has opened an investigation into whether any laws were violated during his covert contingency planning, court officials said on Wednesday.

The inquiry will not focus on Varoufakis himself, since courts cannot investigate ministers or lawmakers who enjoy parliamentary immunity from prosecution. Varoufakis, who was finance minister from January until he quit in July, remains a member of parliament.

Instead it will look into media reports of the plan to see whether crimes such as violation of personal data protection and breach of duty were committed.

A group of lawyers filed a suit this week seeking the inquiry. A statement from Varoufakis’s office said: “Their aim is to register the January-July period as a ‘great’ mistake or even ‘better’ to criminalize the five-month tough negotiations by the government of the Left.”

(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Deepa Babington in Athens and Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by David Stamp)

Photo: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, Greece July 24, 2015. (REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis)

Denials Fly In War Of Nerves Over Greek Debt Talks

Denials Fly In War Of Nerves Over Greek Debt Talks

By Renee Maltezou and Francesco Guarascio

ATHENS/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Conflicting statements and denials flew between Athens and Brussels on Tuesday in a war of nerves highlighting the depth of mutual mistrust over a new round of negotiations on an 86 billion euro bailout that started this week.

Any hope of a fresh start in fraught relations between Greece’s leftist government, purged of its most radical members, and the institutions representing its creditors, appeared to be dashed by the flurry of assertions and rebuttals.

Differences included the pace and conduct of bailout talks, whether or not Greece needs to enact further laws before a deal, the reopening of the Athens stock exchange, and the activities of former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who continues to heap abuse on the creditors in his blog.

The two sides couldn’t even agree on when the talks began.

A Greek Finance Ministry official said the heads of the European Commission and International Monetary Fund delegations would arrive on Wednesday for talks on a third bailout program to keep Greece afloat in the euro zone. Technical negotiations would be wrapped up by Friday, with “follow up” discussions over the weekend under exceptional circumstances, he said.

“Both sides aim to reach a deal as soon as possible,” the official said.

European Commission officials said European mission chiefs were already on the ground and talks had begun on Monday. But they made clear the creditors would not be stampeded into a rushed agreement without detailed reform commitments in writing.

Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said there was “no fixed deadline” for the conclusion of a Memorandum of Understanding, and if all parties kept to commitments made at a July 13 euro summit, “an agreement by the second fortnight of August is possible”.

Greek officials were at pains to play down what they see as the humiliating and intrusive aspects of the talks – access to ministries, the right to examine accounts and question civil servants, and the visible presence of the negotiators in Athens.

The Finance Ministry official said there had been no organizational issues and all discussions were taking place at the institutions’ residence. When required, creditors’ representatives had met with Greek officials at the Bank of Greece and the State General Accounting Office.

EU officials said security and logistical issues had delayed the start of the talks, originally planned for last Friday.

Also hanging over the talks is the growing disarray within Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza party, whose policy-setting central committee will meet on Thursday to decide whether to hold an emergency congress in September to overhaul the party or hold a referendum on the way forward.

In a sign of the deepening rift within the party, three far-left members of the 11 officials on Syriza’s political committee that met on Tuesday demanded the government break off negotiations with EU/IMF creditors and return to its anti-bailout roots.

Panagiotis Lafazanis, the leader of the far-left Left Platform wing of Syriza, also stepped up his attack against the pro-bailout Greek establishment, saying they were trying to “criminalize” any alternative to the bailout.

A day earlier, Lafazanis pledged in a defiant public speech that those who voted “No” to the bailout in a referendum this month would not be forgotten.

MORE REFORMS

On the negotiations front, the Greek official said suggestions that Greece needed to pass further reform legislation before a bailout deal were not justified by the euro summit statement or subsequent exchanges.

However, euro zone officials made clear that Athens must enact measures to curb early retirement and close tax loopholes for farmers before any new aid is disbursed. Greece needs more finance by Aug. 20, when it owes a 3.5 billion euro payment to the European Central Bank.

When Tsipras’ radical leftist Syriza movement won power in January, it initially sought to scrap the previous bailout, reverse austerity measures demanded by the creditors and exclude the IMF from any future talks.

When negotiations on further aid eventually began, they were moved to Brussels, with no access to Greek ministries. Tsipras kept trying to escalate the talks to a political level to avoid detailed technical documents setting out reform obligations.

Also hanging over the new talks is the legacy of Varoufakis, whom Tsipras sidelined in the final phase of the talks before accepting even more stringent bailout terms this month.

The Marxist academic resigned after Tsipras rejected his proposals for radical steps to create a parallel payment system to get around the closure of Greek banks and the imposition of capital controls on June 28.

But he continues to create problems for the premier by denouncing the bailout agreement and accusing the creditors of having treated Greece like a colony.

EU Commission spokeswoman Andreeva denied as “false and unfounded” allegations by Varoufakis that the creditors had taken control of the Finance Ministry’s general secretariat for public revenue.

He made the charge in explaining why he had devised a covert system for hacking into citizens’ tax codes.

“The Commission and the IMF only provide technical assistance to the tax administration, but certainly do not control the secretary general for public revenues,” Andreeva said. “Alleging that the troika would be controlling the secretary general for public revenues is simply not true.”

A Greek government official stressed that Varoufakis’ plan had never been carried out, and no laws had been broken.

(Additional reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and Deepa Babington, Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Photo: A Greek flag flutters in the wind above tourists visiting the archaeological site of the Acropolis hill in Athens, Greece July 26, 2015. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)