After a marathon meeting on Monday, the leaders of the government and opposition parties came to an agreement on the goals of a possible agreement with Greece’s international creditors. These goals, which were outlined in a joint communiqué, include the following:

  • Adequate coverage for the country’s funding needs
  • Reliable reforms, with a fair distribution of burdens, aiming for growth and with the least possible recessionary effects
  • A powerful, front-loaded growth plan that will tackle unemployment and encourage entrepreneurship
  • Commit to substantial discussion regarding the sustainability of the Greek public debt
  • Restoring liquidity in the domestic banking system, in coordination with the ECB

During the discussion with the other political leaders, the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras analyzed ten proposals, which he aims to include in an agreement with Greece’s international creditors.

  • Maintaining the 30% VAT discount on the islands
  • Abolishing the measure of a 100% tax payment in advance for businesses
  • Postponing the gradual abolition of benefits in agriculture
  • Postpone defense cuts to 2016
  • Delaying the reform in the country’s pension system
  • Abolish the EKAS pension grant at the end of 2019
  • Gradually introduce a 20% cut of the EKAS benefit
  • Abolish parafiscal taxes by 2019
  • Implement chances to Collective Labor Agreements in October 2015
  • Conclude talks with the OECD before implementing its toolkit

Although there were thoughts of establishing a national negotiation team, the opposition leaders – New Democracy’s Evangelos Meimarakis, the River’s Stavros Theodorakis and PASOK’s Fofi Gennimata – decided against such a prospect, given the overwhelming ‘No’ vote on Sunday.

The PASOK leader expressed doubts as to what would happen should the creditors reject the Greek government proposals and whether PM Tsipras has the necessary guarantees so that such a program may be accepted. On the other hand, the River estimated that the Prime Minister approached the positions of the opposition and noted that Mr. Tsipras appeared determined to reach an agreement with the creditors.