Greek deal: details and next steps
By Andrew Rettman BRUSSELS, Today, 12:50


Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, told press: “The final completion of a deal could take a number of weeks”.

Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), noted: “The [summit] agreement is a step toward creating confidence and … there’ll be many more steps needed to implement what has been agreed”.

The summit produced a seven-page document, which envisages two sets of Greek reforms, as well as additional steps.

The first set is to: improve VAT collection; broaden the tax base; reform the pension system; copper-plate the independence of the Greek statistical office; and create a system of “quasi-automatic” budget cuts in case the Greek economy underperforms.

The second set is much bigger.

It includes: deeper pensions cuts; new retail laws, for instance, introducing Sunday trading; opening up of “macro-critical” professions like ferry transportation; privatisation of the electricity grid; weakening of trade unions; and ending “political interference” in bank sector appointments.

It also includes the creation of a €50 billion Greek asset fund.

The fund is to be based in Greece and managed by Greek authorities, but under the “supervision” of EU institutions.

Dijsselbloem said “experts” will assess which Greek assets will be placed under the fund’s ownership. But French leader Francois Hollande said up to half of it will be Greek banks.

The income generated by the fund, part of it through privatisations and part by what Dijsselbloem called “running” of the assets, will be chopped into three pieces.

Half will be used to recapitalise Greek banks.

One quarter will be used to reduce the GDP to debt ratio and one quarter for investments in the Greek economy.

The additional steps include request for fresh IMF assistance, and compliance with IMF monitoring, from 1 March 2016.

They also include reform of the Greek judicial system, to end government clientelism.
Next steps

The next step will be for Greek MPs, on Tuesday or Wednesday, to ratify the summit document and to enact the first set of reforms into law.

If Greek MPs agree, the other 18 euro-states’ governments and parliaments will ratify the summit document, with the most hawkish parliaments - in Finland and Germany - the ones to watch.

Dijsselbloem said this should take place on Thursday or Friday. But he added: “It’s difficult to say when, because they’re sovereign parliaments, so they’ll decide on their own timetables”.

If the votes are in the bag, the Eurogroup and the board of the European Stability Mechanism, a Luxembourg-based crisis fund, will start talks with Greece, possibly next weekend, on a “memorandum of understanding”.

The memo will flesh out details of the second set of Greek reforms.

If there’s an accord, it will unlock between €82 billion and €86 billion of ESM assistance over the next three years.

Between €10 billion and €25 billion is to be used for bank recapitalisation.

One billion will be placed in a special account for emergency use.

If the ESM deal is put in place, and if the first “programme review” confirms Greek compliance, Dijsselbloem said “we’ll also have to deal with financing of Greek debt and [long-term] debt sustainability”.

The summit document says this might include “longer grace periods” for Greece to pay back loans.

But both the document and German chancellor Angela Merkel underlined there’s no question of debt relief, or “haircuts”.

The document added that, over the next three to five years, the European Commission will channel €35 billion from its flagship “Juncker fund” to Greece.

One billion euro will be front-loaded for an immediate boost.
Bridge-financing

Long and medium-term issues aside, Greece also needs to repay private and public sector bonds in the coming days to avoid default

One crucial bill is €4.2 billion, due to the European Central Bank on 20 July.

But the summit document estimates that Greece needs €7 billion to cover July and €5 billion more up to mid-August.

Dijsselbloem said the Eurogroup will reconvene later on Monday to discuss “bridge financing”.

“This [bridge-financing] would involve all the member states, but it’s too early to say how this will go”.

French president Francois Hollande noted: “It’s now necessary to put in place the financing mechanism for the time of the negotiation”.
EB meeting

In the meantime, Greek banks remain closed and capital controls remain in place.

But the ECB, which is providing emergency liquidity assistance [ELA] to Greek lenders, will also hold a board meeting on Monday.

If it opts to raise the ELA ceiling, either on Monday, or following the Greek parliament vote, the pressure on Greek banks will ease.

"The situation in Greece is very tense, so there is a certain interest we advance quickly with further steps”, Merkel said on Monday.

“I have no reason to doubt the timetable”, she added.

За какво повече „Wohlfahrtsstaat“ от Европа, бре професоре?

The lower class magazin - Смъртта на реформизма (на немски език)

Oberham 13.07.2015 | 12:40

.... sie vergessen, das Volk will keine Demokratie!

Das Volk will vor allem Wohlstand. Wobei es unter Wohlstand den erbärmlichen Wettbewerb um Posten, Geld und Konsumkraft versteht, ausblendet, dass ein großer, immer größer werdendener, Anteil der Spieler veritable, würdelose und marginalisierte Verlierer sind.

Europa .- oder auch Nordamerika, pumpte seine Menschen zu Konsummonstern auf, indem es den Rest der Welt gnadenlos aussaugte, nun kommen die Schwellenländer - China - Indien - Brasilien dazu, die auch Millionen von neuen Konsummonstren schaffen, d.h. in jenen Regionen, wo noch die Elendsprofiteure lauern, wird die Beute kleiner, werden künftig auch echte Elendsgruppen geschaffen - im Grunde kehren wir zur globalen Spaltung in völlig Verarmte - und hemmungslos Reiche zurück.

Nur - das Volk wünscht es sich!

Würden die Griechen zu ihrem Referendum stehen, stünden sie nun auf den Straßen, es gäbe einen Generalstreik und den Euro würde man zum Teufel jagen.

Man würde wohl seine Kosnumpower verlieren, doch würde das Land zurückgewinnen, die Menschen, die Böden, die Chancen zu einem Neubeginn - nur - soweit will das griechische Volk offensichtlich nicht gehen - lieber lässt es sich in eine Horde von Sklaven transformieren, die künftig wieder die Touristen brav hofiert, die einige Gewinnerplätze in Regierung und Verwaltung zu vergeben haben, die ihre Oligarchen weiter tragen und in großer Zahl die ersten Elendseuropäer dieser Union hervorbringen - und zwar auf Dauer.

80 % der Griechen dürfte es künftig schlechter gehen, sogar als Konsumtrottel schlechter gehen, sie werden leiden, jammern und betteln!

Der Rest sieht sich als intelligente Gruppe, die gewonnen hat.

Dieses Prinzip wird sich schneller über Resteuropa ausbreiten, als es sich so mancher willige Helfer ausmalt.

Nein, wir leben nicht in Scheindemokratien, wir leben als faule, feige und vor allem gewissenlose Kreaturen, die sich genau die Zukunft schaffen, die angemessen ist, für so eine irrwitzige Art, letztlich haben wir in Summe zu tiefst demokratisch diesen Weg gewählt - es ist der Weg den die Mehrheit wünscht!

(..... und wenn die Mehrheit tatsächlich so dumm sein sollte, dies alles nicht wahrhaben zu können, dann behaupte ich, es ist noch schlimmer - wir sind nicht nur in Summe feige, sondern schlicht völlig verblödet!)

си остават за мен абсолютно недоказани твърдения, макар и повторени стократно.

For austerity to work, one of the following two conditions must hold.
One is that a nation’s trading partners are growing fast....
The second scenario under which austerity may work is if fiscal austerity coincides with the creation of large bubbles within the private sector; for example, in the housing market or finance...

...Lessons from Europe’s dalliance with austerity

There can be little doubt that austerity has a tendency to undermine itself.

In 2010 the UK’s newly elected coalition government led by Prime Minster David Cameron decided that cutting the Budget deficit was the national priority.

Precisely as the Abbott-Hockey government has argued, the British government claimed large government expenditure led to large deficits; large deficits would crowd out private investment; debt had already been on the rise (and had to be subdued); and, unless the deficit was brought down, the nation faced the deadly threat of increased interest rates that would put it on an unsustainable fiscal path.

The British opted for fiscal austerity in the 2010 Budget, setting an annual net borrowing target for the next two years of no more than £322 billion. However, in its June 2013 Budget, the actual sum exceeded £535 billion. Why? Because the spending cuts slowed the economy right down, aborted the nascent recovery of 2009/10, and reduced the government’s tax take by more than anticipated.

За какво да чета по-нататък ?

А, въпрос ли било ?

Хайде, за тази вечер ми вригна. Бегай у лево.