The Ministers of Finances Gikas Hardouvelis, Labor Yannis Vroutsis, Growth Nikos Dendias, Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Justice Charalambos Athanasiou, along with the PM’s close associates Chrysanthos Lazaridis and Stavros Papastavrou have headed to Paris, where they will meet the troika.
The Greek team will focus its efforts in coming to an agreement without taking into consideration the stress test results of the banks and to force the troika to adopt a more moderate stance. While the coalition government has managed to produce primary surpluses, it has still lagged behind in many critical areas, such as social insurance and employment relations.
According to a Financial Times report, the Minister of Finances will present a series of tax cut proposals, specifically for the VAT, special fuel consumption tax and solidarity tax. The argument is that the cuts will provide some necessary relief to the Greek taxpayers and demonstrate that Greece is finally exiting the deep crisis.
With an increasing number of EU members arguing against the policy of austerity, in conjunction with Greece’s primary surpluses and completion of prior actions, the Prime Minister appears confident that the talks in Paris will result in the troika adopting a more moderate approach.
