What’s Up in Greece on Feb 20/12? tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

What’s Up in Greece on Feb 20/12?

Posted by in Very Mix

The rescue package is up in Greece as the finance ministers of Euro zone meet in Brussels at 6 pm (gr time) on Monday. While they give the green light to rescue Greece from bankrupcty with a fat new loan of €130 billion? Austrian finance minister Maria Fekter told state broadcaster ORF  yesterday that

“I don’t think there will be a majority to go down any other avenue” than a Greek bailout. Asked whether ministers will reach agreement, she said: “It looks like it.”

Should ministers fail to back the bailout package at their Brussels meeting, the issue could be pushed off to the next European Union summit on March 1. A disrupted schedule would threaten to spark unease among investors and reverse a decline in bond yields in indebted nations such as Italy and Spain. (Capital.gr)

However Finland’s finance ministry said that “This assessment and the final approval for the second Greek package are likely to take place in the week beginning March 12″. other sources speak of a possible final OK during the eurogroup summit on March 1.

The markets seem confident, that the Eurogroup will take a postivie decision today, and General Index of Athens Stock Exchange records a +2.02 as of 12.17 pm.

PM Lucas Papademos left for Brussels on Sunday afternoon with the aim to fix some issues that are/were still open like the escrow account and the surveillance of Greece. It is not clear yet whether he will attend the eurogroup ministers meeting.

Meanwhile, Greece is divided on some of the new austerity measures that pass through the Parliament today and thus in fast-track procedures. The cuts in the pensions over €1,300 reveal that public servants and employees at state-run enterprises enjoy generous pensions of even 2,500 euro per month. Pensioners from the private sector (employees, farmers, self-employeed) do not get more than 1,600-1,700 euro maximum, while the majority gets less than 1,000 euro, between 400 and 700 euro.

Also the issue of the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants divides the country. Greeks working at the private sector say “get rid of the lazy civil servants”, while those about to be laid-off, complain about the upcoming unemployment in a country with -7% recession and 20% unemployment. 3% of the permanent and temporary civil servants will soon see the way out of the public service. Among them personnel form the educations and the health sector.

High-school students took to the streets and gathered outside the Parliament to protest the conditions in the education and the general situation in the country. High-school students protested on Friday and joined the demonstrations also on Sunday.

Yesterday, unionists from the public and private sector, leftist organisation, left-wing parties and several other interests groups had been flocking the whole day outside the Greek parliament to portest the new loan agreement and the austerity package. The protests ended with tear gas and stones and 135 detentions.

Finance Crime Units (SDOE) of the Greek Finance ministry fined a heating oil distributor in Crete with 202,4 million euro! “If SDOE data are correct, the fined businessman has distributed 103 million liters of heating oil to a small village in the time Jan-Mar 2011. This amount is equivalent to 5% of the heating oil consumption in the whole country for the year 2010″ said the Federation of Fuel Stations Owners in a statement.

Blue buses drivers in Athens will launch a work stoppage tomorrow, Feb 21/12, between 11 am and 5 pm.

The weather is icy cold in Northern Greece, with snow and frost. Snow chains are needed in some areas. Rain is expected in the South.