The Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, clarifies the privatizations: those already completed will not be affected, but the law allows the government to change the terms of the transfers still in progress, assessing their legality. "We will not change the privatizations already done, but for those in progress we could change some terms, examining their legitimacy," Varoufakis told Real FM radio station.
Meanwhile, Athens has also specified, through the head of Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis (exponent of the radical current of Syriza), that it does not intend to proceed in any case with the privatization process involving the key utility sector, in spite of the commitments towards international creditors.
"Operation Admie will not go ahead," Lafazanis told the Ethnos newspaper on newsstands today. “The companies have not made binding offers, so it will not be completed. The same goes for PPC”. The planned divestment of the electricity grid operator Admie included the so-called shortlist, among others, the Italian Terna and the State Grid Corporation of China.
“We don't intend to give away the family silverware at shamefully low prices,” continues Lazafanis. An official of the Ministry of Energy also explains to the press that the new executive led by Alexis Tsipras will not block the Canadian company Eldorado Gold in the exploitation of the mines in the north of the country, but intends to review the conditions of the concession.
