By N. Bellos
[email protected]
The European Commission has approved of the draft 2019 budget submitted by the Greek government, considering that it fully meets Stability Pact rules, a development that mostly assures that a pre-legislated social security spending reduction - set for Jan. 1, 2019 - will be avoided after all.
The approval also opens the path for the implementation of several countervailing measures - mostly welfare spending and several modest tax cuts - that the Tsipras government has enacted when it passed the law for 2019 pension cuts, back in 2017.
The approval is viewed as a much needed fillip for the poll-trailing ruling SYRIZA party and the beleaguered leftist-rightist coalition government, where hard left SYRIZA is the dominant partner.
Conversely, the Commission appeared dissatisfied with the rate of post-bailout reforms underway in the thrice-bailed out Eurozone member-state, indirectly reminding that Athens must meet agreed to obligations in order for European creditors to fulfill promised debt relief measures.
