The president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem has seen “significant progress” in the negotiations between Greek authorities and the institutions, while noting that work on the bailout program review will continue over the Catholic Easter break.
“Talks between the Greek government and the institutions have been productive since the mission started after the last Eurogroup” noted the Dutch Finance Minister in a written statement.
According to him, “significant progress has been made on outstanding issues as income tax and pension reforms” and that “work is ongoing and will continue over the Easter break”.
In conclusion, the Eurogroup chief revealed that “the mission chiefs will return to Athens on 2 April to resume discussions with a view to conclude them as soon as possible”.
“The mission has been productive. Significant progress has been made on the income tax reform,” IMF also announced.
Greek government confident of completing bailout review on time
On his part, Greek PM Tsipras held a meeting with senior government officials in his office in Parliament on Monday morning in order to discuss the critical bailout program review and refugee crisis.
During the meeting it was confirmed that the government and institutions were near to an agreement on income tax and pension reforms, with some distance in relation to non-performing loans. Although this is a significant issue that remains unresolved, the prevailing belief amongst the Greek government is that the review will conclude on time.
In relation to the refugee crisis, it was stressed that the flows from Turkey must be reduced. As such it was decided to increase the pressure on Brussels in order to demand the full implementation of the recent agreement reached with Turkey.
Following the meeting with his Ministers, PM Tsipras met with the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos in order to discuss the refugee crisis and the implementation of the recent agreement that was reached in Brussels.
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