Greek govt and Brussels Group on labor issues (video)

Alternate Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas states that labor issues were the main area of discussion with the Brussels group. "We said 'no' to the mass layoffs, there is no disagreement as far as regards to pensions and VAT," said Mardas on Monday said in statements to private MEGA TV. " The Greek team said 'no' to mass layoffs and convinced the Burssels groups that this issue should no longer be discussed. He said that he did not see any specific opposition on the part of the Brussels Group.

Mardas said that the Greek proposals for reforms are quantitative and equivalent to yielding 5 bln euros.

Regarding VAT, he said there will not be an overall increase, stating that "it is one of the four measures that are still open." However, he ruled out a horizontal increase in VAT on medicine, hotels and food.

He said that the government's position on heating oil was to return to a settlement similar to one in the past so that there is a difference between heating oil and diesel prices. Heating oil will be around 60 cents per liter and diesel will be reduced to the lowest levels.