The agreement on the austerity plan for Greece is getting closer. Within a few hours, the government in Athens and the EU and IMF delegations could reach a decisive agreement. This is the opinion of Panagiotis Roumeliotis, Greek representative at the International Monetary Fund. "Talks are continuing to finalize the deal on spending cuts and some revenue items," Roumeliotis told Reuters.
The inspectors from Brussels and the IMF returned to Athens today, despite their last visit having ended only a few days ago. They were forced to backtrack by Prime Minister George Papandreou's cabinet reshuffle. Perhaps the confrontation with the new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, will serve to unblock the situation. The supplementary recovery plan envisages savings of 28,4 billion between now and 2015, of which 6,4 billion to fall on the 2010 budget.
The Greek Parliament will have to vote on it with an urgent procedure on Thursday 30 June, in order to present the papers in order on 3 July at the extraordinary summit of the Eurogroup. Only then will it be decided whether to pay the new tranche of aid to the country. Meanwhile, the Greek press provides alarmist reconstructions of the picture, speaking of a 3,8 billion euro budget hole for which Athens has not yet found any funding. Rumors that Minister Venizelos declined to comment.
