Prime Minister George Papandreou is adamant on passing the Mid-Term Austerity Package through the Greek Parliament. According to latest information, the Package will be submitted to the Economics Commission of Parliament on June 15 for a so-called ‘fist reading’. Most probably the commission will conclude its works on June 17, unless the opposition will submit a request for an additional session. On June 24th or 27th, the Economy Commission will meet for the ‘second reading’ of the Mid-Term Package. This will take place seven days after the conclusion of the ‘first reading’. On June 27 or 28, the package will be submitted to the Plenary session of the Parliament. According to original schedule, the voting will take place on June 30. However it is possible that the voting will be postponed for the first week of July (4-7), according to the Greek media. However still some media claim the voting will take place on June 28th.
Already one member of governing party PASOk has declared that he would not vote for the Mid-Term Package if there will be no changes in the privatization plans of the Electric Power Company (DEH). The lawmaker is been elected in the Kozani prefecture in the North, where the big DEH-factories are. A total of 16 PASOK-member have asked more democratic procedures for the voting. PASOK has 156 seats in the Parliament and needs 151 votes to pass a law. All the opposition parties have declared so far, they won’t support the strict austerity package.
