Giorgos Katrougalos

The last meeting among Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and the representatives of the institutions lasted less than hour.

According to a government official, the discussion focused on social security and consultation timetable.

Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos expressed his hope that the government will reach an agreement with the representatives of the institutions on social security noting that there was a progress during the negotiation talks.

Mr. Katrougalos said that the progress concerned the replacement rates and supplementary pensions, but he did not give any details.

The Greek government presented to the representatives of the institutions its plan to impose a new tax for bank transactions of 1 per mille in order to avoid new stricter measures and cover the fiscal gap and the gap in social security.

It seems that the negative reaction of farmers’ representatives on Prime Minister’s proposals took the government by surprise.

The Greek government hopes that the tension can de-escalate betting on the tiredness of the farmers from the many days of protesting at the blockades and its promises of improvements in social security and tax reforms.

Speaking at private TV channel ANT1 Labour Minister Giorgos Katrougalos admitted that SYRIZA was not able to fulfill the promises made to Greek society during election campaign adding that the people saw that and voted us again in September.

There has been no progress in negotiations between Greek government and the representatives of the institutions, while IMF’s head Christine Lagarde calls for significant pension reforms  so as to start the debate on Greek debt relief.

Greece’s lenders are adamant about their demands and objections to the proposals submitted by Greek Labour Minister Giorgos Katrougalos.

Labour Minister Giorgos Katrougalos discussed all main issues of social security reform with the representatives of institutions, but all of them are still open.

“We discussed in depth the issues and the negotiation was tough” M. Katorugalos stated after the meeting hoping that negotiations would turn up in favor of the Greek society.

The negotiation talks between the Greek government and the representatives of the institutions have started amidst the protest rallies conducted by most of the labour unions

The representatives of the Institutions question the efficiency of specific fiscal measures and forecast a 1-1.2 billion euros difference in government’s revenue for 2016.