Five new changes in Pension Reform Bill are required by the EU/ECB/IMF-troika, currently in Athens for consultation with the Minister of Labor.
Speaking yesterday morning in ANT1 (the TV show “Good Morning Greece), Labor Minister Andreas Loverdos said that the troika, fearing a possible collapse of the Pensions/Insurance Institutions, calls for an immediate change of the system in the following five points :
1. Implementation of the New Pension Bill as of as 2015 and not 2018 as proposed by Greece.
2. Full pension at 40 years of work (not at 37 as proposed by Greece) and a penalty of minus 6% per year to anyone entering early retirement.
3. Reducing pensions to divorced and unmarried – apparently it refers to unmarried or divorced daughters of army officials, who get the pension of their father.
4. Reducing pensions to widows. Widows under 50 yrs should not get any pension at all, while those under 65 should get pension according to their income.
Reuters wrote that the “Pension reform is a key performance benchmark for Greece under the three-year bailout programme, the biggest ever for an individual country. Any glitch over pensions could raise doubts about the Greek government’s resolve to carry out the programme.
The draft pension bill allows retirees to draw a full pension after 37 years of contributions, three years earlier than set out in the bailout deal agreed earlier this month.
The bill also fully implements reform in 2018, three years after an EU-IMF deadline”.
Link to
Reuters article http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100525/tbs-uk-eurozone-greece-eu-4210405.html English
TANEA http://www.tanea.gr/default.asp?pid=2&ct=1&artid=4576124 Greek
Loverdos is lying through his teeth.
Let me set the record straight. The IMF NEVER dictates the manner of spending cuts or any other measures. It may advise/propose.
It ONLY dictates the level of cuts, setting certain goals/targets. That is, it says that public spending has to be cut by say 10%. It’s up to the government how to achieve it.
The Greek govenment has had many options. Let me just give you one.
Instead of cutting the pensions of the senior citizens (who already paid through the nose all their lives), it could have fired, say 200,000 public employees (parasites).
Is there anyone out there who believes that the IMF would have rejected such a proposal and say “NO, just keep them they are worth their money”?
They just did not want to loose 200,000 voters. Have no doubt about it.