Greece: pension reform and income tax adopted by parliament – Les Echos

After two days of debate, the Greek Parliament passed in the night from Sunday to Monday the pension reform demanded by the major creditors of the country, the EU and the IMF, as well as the income tax. The adoption of this text, a few hours of an important meeting in Brussels of the Eurogroup on Greece, is built into the logic of the government’s efforts to align with the requirements of the creditors who demand savings 5.4 billion euros by 2018.

the law on “a unified social security system and pension reform regulation of income tax” remains very contested by the street and caused a union mobilization since Friday and many events.

In total 26,000 people according to police demonstrated on Sunday in Athens and Thessaloniki (north) and Sunday night near the Parliament brief incidents between a group of youths and police who fired teargas.

153 deputies were in favor, 143 against

the 153 members of the government majority , composed of the Syriza left and Anel sovereignist party, voted for the text while other 143 deputies present in the Chamber, all members of the opposition, including the right of New Democracy, have voted against. The text provides for the reduction of the highest pensions, merge multiple insurance funds, the increase in contributions, taxes and taxation especially for middle and high income.

the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras, who has maintained during this critical vote cohesion of its parliamentary majority, albeit small, hopes that the adoption of this reform before the meeting Monday in Brussels, Ministers Finance eurozone (Eurogroup) will help to finally open the debate on the thorny issue of debt settlement.

This extraordinary meeting comes as the reforms required in return for the massive financial aid to the summer 2015 still have not received a clean bill of creditors (EU and IMF) after ten months of discussions, which blocks any new payment.

the debt to the agenda of the Eurogroup meeting

Greece has “almost reached” its objectives of the reforms desired by its creditors and the Eurogroup will conduct a “preliminary discussions” about a possible development of the country’s debt, said President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in an interview published Sunday in Germany.

Although Jean-Claude Juncker, however, recalled that an outright debt reduction is not the order of the played, Alexis Tsipras welcomed the fact that the debt was on the agenda of Eurogroup. “Tomorrow is a very important day. After six years (crisis) Eurogroup will meet to discuss the debt relief, “said he stressed to the Assembly Sunday evening, just before the start of voting at midnight.

But his main political rival, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the leader of New Democracy, accused the government of “disability” and has blamed “the delays (in negotiations with creditors ) “. He asked “the departure of the government left power and early elections for Greece avoids applying new measures” rigorously.

AFP

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