Greek PM calls for national consensus on austerity measures, reforms
2010-12-11 10:31:06
ATHENS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday repeated a plea for national consensus on austerity measures and structural reforms promoted by his socialist government this year to tackle a severe debt crisis.
"Our target is to face reality in a difficult environment," said Papandreou during a debate in parliament, calling on opposition parties to support efforts to overcome the crisis over a three-year period.
Greece faced the danger of default this spring due to a budget deficit that reached 15.4 percent of the GDP in 2009.
The euro-zone member country avoided the default by securing a multi-billion euro rescue package from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May over a three-year period, pledging painful austerity measures and reforms, which, however, were rejected by labor unions and opposition political parties.
Papandreou on Friday called for a series of meetings with leaders of opposition parties to discuss the latest developments in the Greek economy ahead of the European Union summit on Dec. 16 and the tabling of the 2011 Greek draft budget in the Greek parliament later this month.
It was announced Friday afternoon that Papandreou is to hold talks with main opposition leaders, including leader of the conservative "New Democracy" Party Antonis Samaras, Greek Communist Party General-Secretary Aleka Papariga and far-right "Popular Orthodox Rally" Party leader George Karatzaferis on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Greek legislators will debate a draft bill which envisions changes in labor contracts and a 10-percent cutbacks on monthly salaries of those who earn more than 1,800 euros (2,383 U.S. dollars) at loss-making state enterprises.
The changes in labor contracts would allow employers of ailing companies to sidestep collective wage agreements and reach alternative agreements with the personnel.
The new draft bill has been backed by the EU-IMF experts, who have been monitoring since May the progress of the Greek government's policies to reduce budget deficit and boost competitiveness.
However, the opposition parties and labor unions opposed some of the measures, accusing the government of adding more burdens to employees.
"We have one choice ahead of us -- we will either guarantee job positions, or let enterprises close down and proceed to mass lay-offs," said Papandreou, defending the bill in the parliament debate on Friday.
According to the latest official figures of the Greek statistical authorities this week, the unemployment rate reached 12.6 percent in September, showing an upward trend.
Speaking at an event a few hours later, Papandreou stressed that structural reforms in the labor market will boost growth, repeating that the focus in the following months will be on structural reforms, not just fiscal discipline.
The IMF and EU top officials who came to Athens this week for talks with Greek officials made the same suggestions, calling on the Greek government to step up structural reforms in early 2011.
"Greece should speed up procedures to use the regional EU aid funds which are already available," said EU regional funds commissioner Johannes Hahn on Friday in Athens.
Greece has used so far only 15 percent of a 22-billion-euro (29.1 billion dollars) fund secured for regional development projects in the period 2007-2013, due to bureaucracy problems and lack of funds to co-finance these projects. The Greek government seeks to double the "absorption" rate of these funds in 2011.
However, the measures implemented so far and the new changes envisioned in the draft bill were strongly denounced by the labor unions, which organized a new round of protests.
Public transport employees will stage work stoppages, which are to start from Sunday and culminate next Wednesday, the day of a new general strike called by the umbrella labor unions of all state and private sector employees across Greece.
The union of private sector employees GSEE calls for a separate work stoppage and a rally in front of the parliament next Tuesday, the day lawmakers will be debating the draft bill on labor reforms.
"This bill is unacceptable. We will block it with our continuing struggle," said a representative of the union on Friday.
