A plan from 12 billion euros of reforms, to be completed in the next two years: these are these, according to reports from the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, the proposals by Alexis Tsipras that international creditors will have to evaluate and approve, to allow Athens access to the third bailout since the outbreak of the crisis.
The document which must arrive on the table in Brussels by midnight today therefore presents more reforms than those predicted on the eve (there was talk of an 8 billion euro intervention), but also a tragic picture of the current Greek situation: in the face of a growth budgeted by 0,5% – this year – GDP should contract by 3%, due to the uncertainties and turbulence of recent times. Not to mention asanitary emergency which has been going on for years amidst infant mortality and increasing diseases, and which in these days is seeing hospitals postpone operations and medicines becoming scarce.
According to another newspaper, Naftemporiki, there would also be details of some planned interventions: corporate taxation would rise from 26 to 28%, VAT on luxury goods from 10 to 13% (together with the 23% rate for food, restaurants, transport and some health services); that on hotels from 6,5 to 13%. A reform of the banking system, tragically affected by the crisis, is also in the pipeline: just today is the announcement that Greek banks will remain closed until Monday, the day after a crucial weekend which sees on the agenda first the Eurogroup on Saturday and then the EU28 summit on Sunday, a date by which many have identified the deadline to find an agreement.
The Greek authorities are confident they can reach an agreement with international creditors which will then be approved by Parliament: government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said. "I am sure that the agreement will pass the vote of the Syriza parliamentary group and the governing coalition," he told Antenna TV. "The government is doing everything possible to reach an immediate agreement and put an end to this cycle of uncertainty". To achieve this goal, Prime Minister Tsipras is meeting with party leaders in Athens. But the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi this time is very cautious about the possibility of overcoming the obstacle of the Greek crisis. “I don't know, this time it's really difficult” he confessed to a reporter for Il Sole 24 Ore on the plane that was taking him back from Brussels to Rome.
However, European leaders expect a positive response by midnight today. If an agreement is not found by Sunday, the Grexit hypothesis, feared yesterday by both the President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker ("We are also ready for Grexit"), and by the President of the EU Council Donald Tusk will again become plausible: "Every scenario will be possible, including the worst, where we all lose."
In the meantime, the Tsipras Government yesterday, through the initiative of the new Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, submitted an application to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to obtain new financial aid, and has promised that by next week it will introduce tax and pension measures. However, obtaining new loans will not be easy: in addition to stringent conditions, the treaty provides for debt sustainability, on which even the White House intervened yesterday, expressing perplexity and strongly hoping for a restructuring, which goes in the direction of Greece remaining in the eurozone at all costs.
