ATHENS: Talks between Greece and its international creditors over a new bailout package should go ahead tomorrow after logistical issues that delayed meetings this week are resolved, a Greek official said yesterday.
The meetings with officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund had been expected to start on Friday but were delayed by organisational issues including the location of talks and security.
The finance ministry official said talks were now expected to get underway formally tomorrow after the logistical issues were resolved. The official denied that the government was trying to keep the lenders’ team away from government departments. “We don’t have any problem with them visiting the General Accounting Office,” the official said.
Greeks have viewed inspections visits by the lenders in Athens as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and six-months of acrimonious negotiations with EU partners took place in Brussels at the government’s request.
Asked if the government would now allow EU, IMF and ECB mission chiefs to visit Athens for talks on a new loan, State Minister Alekos Flabouraris said: “If the agreement says that they should visit a ministry, we have to accept that.” The confusion around the expected start to the talks on Friday underlined the challenges ahead if negotiations are to be wrapped up in time for a bailout worth up to ¤86bn to be approved in parliament by August 20, as Greece intends.
Already, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is struggling to contain a rebellion in his leftwing Syriza party that made his government dependent on votes from pro-European opposition parties to get the tough bailout terms approved in parliament.
One of Tsipras’ closest aides warned that the understanding with the opposition parties could not last long and a “clear” solution was needed, underlining widespread expectations that new elections may come as soon as September or October.
Apart from the terms of a new loan, Greece and its lenders are also expected to discuss the sustainability of its debt, which is around 170 percent of GDP. Greece has repeatedly asked for a debt relief and the IMF has said this is needed for the Greek accord to be viable.
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told Italy’s La Stampa daily in an interview that a recent analysis on the issue “justified some concerns”. He added a Greek exit from the euro was “certainly out of the question now”.
Tsipras, who is by far the most popular politician in Greece according to opinion polls, has said his priority is to secure the bailout package before dealing with the political fallout from the Syriza party rebellion.
According to a poll by Metron Analysis for Parapolitika newspaper, 61 percent of Greeks had a positive view of Tsipras against 36 percent who disapproved. An overwhelming majority — 78 percent — still wanted Greece to stay in the eurozone against 19 percent in favour of going back to the drachma.
Tsipras insists there is no viable alternative to the bailout but has been wary of striking out against his party opponents in a bid to keep it together, at least while talks proceed.
Flabouraris called on Syriza rebels to drop their opposition. “They are still my comrades and I urge them to get back to their senses even at the last moment,” he told Skai television. “They should realise that the Left movement is now in power. It’s not an opposition party. Now we have to discuss the new landscape.”
Reuters
Sofia: Faced with a deep economic crisis at home, at least 11,000 Greek companies have found a safe haven in neighbouring low-wage Bulgaria — the poorest member of the European Union.
“We have stability here: Reliable taxation, sound legislation and a positive environment,” said Ioannis Politis, manager of Greek hygiene products company Septona, which established a plant in the northern Bulgarian city of Ruse 10 years ago.
Some 120 large Greek firms set up businesses in Bulgaria in the 2000s in sectors such as retail, metallurgy, fuel distribution, construction and real estate. And if the Greek crisis put an end to the big-business migration in 2009, a rising number of small and medium Greek companies — especially ones that trade with Europe, the Balkans and Russia — have continued moving to Bulgaria to take advantage of its lower taxes.
Kostas Mikhail left Athens in 2014 to open a bakery in Sofia. He has already plans to expand his business. His fellow countryman Panagiotis Douvos made the move in 2011.
“Bulgaria gave me an opportunity to survive, which is difficult in Greece these days,” Douvos said among rows of olive oil bottles and stacks of halloumi cheese in his deli in downtown Sofia.
“It is almost impossible to run a business in Greece, companies disappear within one, two, three months because the taxes and (bank) rates are very high.” The 46-year-old wants to open shops in the Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas.
But the chaos in Athens is still threatening his livelihood. “All my suppliers are Greek and I am afraid that they might not be able to produce and keep up deliveries for the shop,” he said. “Because of the capital controls in place, they can’t withdraw money for transportation and fuel. Now it is definitely safer to keep your money here.”
Many export-oriented companies had already discovered Bulgaria as a business haven two decades ago. Working primarily with Western companies, Kyriakos Fotinos moved his clothing company to Bulgaria in 1996. He said he was “more touched by the economic crisis in Europe in the past five years” and Chinese dumping than by recent developments in his home country.
The company, which also has a factory near Athens, has an annual turnover of ¤50m (£35.5m) and claims 30 percent growth over the past five years thanks to the fact that it exports to Western Europe and not back to Greece.
The crisis in Athens has also spurred the flight of Greek capital into Bulgaria. “Greek enterprises invested ¤4.5-5bn in six years in Bulgaria’s economy,” Krasen Stanchev of the Sofia-based Institute for Market Economics said. Meanwhile, between 50,000 and 60,000 Greeks opened accounts in Bulgarian banks over the same period, he added.
AFP
