The president of the Council of Economic Advisors Panos Tsakloglou will be in Lisbon on Thursday for the Eurogroup Working Group meeting, where he is expected to provide assurances that Greece will complete a series of prior actions in order to collect a 1-billion-euro tranche from the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF).
As the May elections caused some delay in the implementation of these prerequisites there is some concern amongst Greece’s European partners; the list of third-party taxes has not been updated, as many Ministries have not provided the necessary data. Delays have also been noted in the urban planning bill, while the issue of further reducing the profit margins of pharmacies is unresolved.
Furthermore, the Ministries of Finances and Justice have yet to sign a common ministerial decree regarding the collection of debts, nor has the code of conduct for government officials been composed, which aims to reduce corruption in the public sector. Additionally, the government must merge all supplementary pension funds under the ETAA fund, reduce red tape and introduce legislation to monitor the funding of political parties.
With Greece’s expenses for August estimated to be about 6 billion euros, the collection of the next two loan installments is necessary in order to avoid creating further outstanding debts.
