Disagreement remains on the extent of the austerity measures among coalition partners [Reuters]
The meeting was originally scheduled for 11:00 GMT on Wednesday, but began late to allow the three coalition parties study the draft that the Greek prime minister negotiated with International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank.
Papademos, an unelected prime minister who was appointed in November to steer Greece through its financial crisis, is seeking to push through financial reforms to secure $170bn in funds from the EU, ECB and IMF – the so-called troika – to avoid a March default on its bond repayments.
The troika has demanded further measures to improve Greece’s competitiveness and economic stability, including new private-sector wage and pension cuts, public-sector retrenchments and cuts in health, welfare and defence spending.
Unpopular measures
The Greek government has already accepted that it must cut 150,000 public-sector jobs by 2015 to get the new bailout, and reduce 2012 spending by a further 3.3bn euros ($4.3bn) as well as wage cuts in the private sector by 22 per cent and recapitalise banks.
But the measures are unpopular with many Greeks, with workers staging a 24-hour general strike on Tuesday in protest over the proposals.
Greece’s largest labor union, GSEE, said it
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
