PM Samaras briefs gov’t partners on negotiations with troika

PASOK party leader Evangelos Venizelos, in statements following the meeting on Tuesday evening between the three party leaders supporting the government - Prime Minister and New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras, Democratic Left (Dim.Ar) party leader Fotis Kouvelis and himself- denounced the hard nucleus of the eurozone's countries and other officials of "playing with fire" in relation to the Greek issue, as well as for the survival of the eurozone itself.
Venizelos also denounced the EC, ECB, IMF troika of "deliberately delaying" talks on the package of measures something which, as he said, does not benefit neither Greece nor the eurozone. He added that the talks must be concluded but not at any cost and not in a hasty way.
As regards labour issues, on which the tro
ika has raised new demands, Venizelos rejected what the representatives of the country's creditors called for, saying that the extreme point in these issues is that which had been decided in February 2012.

He stressed that anything else does not help neither the growth nor the competitiveness of the Greek economy. The PASOK leader pointed out that his party supports the government, adding that "we must all support a unified national policy, that must produce results."

As he said, he requested from Prime Minister Samaras to present Greece's real national and social question at Thursday's EU summit. Referring to the package of measures, Venizelos said that this must be indeed the last, and be internally fair, not horizontal and take the country out of the crisis at last.

Concluding, the PASOK leader said that PASOK will function again this time in an absolutely responsible way, as a guarantor of political stability in the country "which is moving in a strategically perplexed Europe."

On his part, Kouvelis expressed his absolute disagreement with the demands of the troika regarding the sweeping changes in labour issues.
"The Democratic Left rejects and will not ratify the measures demanded by the troika on labour issues", he said, adding that "it (the troika) must realise that its demands exceed the endurances of society".

He accused the troika of making demands continuously on what the country must do to receive the tranche for 31.5 billion. "Labour rights being levelled is not a structural change," he said and stressed that if what was proposed was accepted, this would lead to greater and deeper recession.

Kouvelis reiterated his position on an overall political negotiating of the package of measures, of extension and the enactment of the clause that will provide the possibility for measures to be withdrawn when targets are achieved.
He also expressed support for the immediate enactment of growth measures and insisted that he does not agree with horizontal cutbacks in wages and pensions.

 SOURCE: ATHENS NEWS AGENCY