By T. Tsiros
The word "progress" was first uttered on Monday by Greek representatives participating in talks with creditors in Athens to conclude the delayed second review of the third bailout program.
Talks on Monday wound up after 11 p.m., with negotiations at the staff level set for Tuesday. Nevertheless, creditors' negotiators will depart Athens, as planned, on the same day, with talks continuing from a distance.
The "good news" comes from talks over an out-of-court framework for the settlement of arrears to the state, with differences between the two sides minimized, a source on the Greek side claimed.
Conversely, negotiations on issues involving the labor and social insurances ministry continued over four hours, focusing exclusively on creditors' demand for a harmonization of social security benefits downwards.
According to another high-ranking ministry source, the Greek side did not accept a proposal for a reduction in social security expenditure by 1 percent of GDP, beginning in 2018, "although some progress in talks was achieved."
Nevertheless, other reports point to the embattled leftist government accepting pension cuts via the harmonization process, but effective in 2019 or 2020.
"Harmonization" in this case means allocating the same benefits to beneficiaries with roughly the same contributions, number of years of employment, retirement age etc., instead of pegging the monthly benefit with the individual fund that a beneficiary belonged to and from which he entered into retirement.
Another round of negotiations come on Tuesday, but with creditors' standing demands for labor sector liberalization on the table, and with the leftist Greek side trying to win acquiescence for a return of mandatory collective bargaining negotiations between social partners -- a regime that was abolished during the crisis years.
The IMF, however, has repeatedly expressed an opposition to a return of mandatory collective bargaining, arguing that Greece constitutes a "special case" within the EU framework, i.e. the country remains in a bailout program financed by institutional creditors.
