In light of Friday’s Eurogroup in Latvia and contacts between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chief of the technical negotiations for Greece Giorgos Houliarakis and EC officer Declan Costello agreed to begin procedures for a Brussels Group teleconference on Monday and a meeting on Wednesday.
The aim of both sides is to overcome the deadlock and push the negotiation process forward, in an effort to reach an agreement by the 11th of May.
On Sunday, PM Tsipras held a meeting with his cabinet’s top finance officers at Maximos Mansion, which included VP Yannis Dragasakis, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and Alternate Minister of International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos. The meeting was held to discuss the results of Friday’s Eurogroup and to devise a strategy for the continuation of talks.
According to reports, the government has also been considering a number of alternative reform proposals. According to sources cited by Mega Channel, these reforms include:
- Freezing labor reforms until June or later
- Curbing early retirement
- Reducing high supplementary pensions
- Introduce a special tax on luxury hotels stays, in lieu of raising VAT on popular islands
- Using funds from privatizations to support the country’s pension system
