KATHIMERINI 


A €700 mln social dividend

Following achievement of €1 bln primary budget surplus in 2013

The government will have at its disposal a €700 mln package of benefits in the run up to the European Parliament elections capitalising on its fiscal achievements in 2013. According to data regarding the implementation of the budget, the fiscal committee estimates that the 2013 primary budget surplus, as calculated by the troika and the Memorandum, will actually reach 1 billion euros as opposed to the 812 million euros which had been estimated a few months ago.

According to the Memorandum, the government will be able to disburse as social welfare payments 70% of this total which amounts to 700 million euros and, according to a high ranking official from the Finance Ministry, the government’s aim is to do so as soon as the data is verified by Eurostat. That is slated to happen on the 23rd of April, one month before the European Parliament elections on the 25th of May.

However it will still have to convince the troika which wants at least a part of the greater than expected primary budget surplus to not be spent, but maintained as a cushion to ensure that the difficult fiscal targets are met for 2014. This year the target for the primary budget surplus has been set at 1.5% of GDP. Additionally the troika only wants the spending to be on temporary benefits. 

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON


The indirect and cynical confession of Olli Rehn over the policies implemented:

We sacrificed you to save ourselves!

  • After Merkel, Olli Rehn admitted that the Memoranda were implemented in order to save the eurozone.

  • Greek governments refused to play this ‘card’ in negotiations with the lenders.

“At the outset of the crisis in the spring of 2010 and for some time afterwards, if we had restructured Greece’s debt we would have faced the dramatic consequences of contagion, both for other member states as well as for the entire banking system in Europe.”

This was European Commissioner Olli Rehn’s response to a question posed MEP Nikos Chountis. This amounts to an indirect confession that the Memoranda were imposed in our country in order to save the eurozone and the banks. His admission follows from that of Angela Merkel who recently referred to the price the eurozone would have paid for a ‘Greek accident,’ a point also made by other EU and IMF officials.

TA NEA


Civil Service: No more “Excellent” ratings for all

How the new appraisals will work

– Those who achieve low scores will be at risk of being placed in mobility schemes or exit from the civil service

Draft legislation being put today before public consultation will put an end to “excellent” ratings for all civil servants during appraisals. However those who attain low appraisal scores will be put in the ‘danger zone.’

ELEFTHEROTYPIA


More criminal investigations of other banks are coming

Clashes between interests with a backdrop of CDS’s and money ‘loaned and lost’

Major developments are expected soon from the justice system over the “red” or outstanding loans that were given to business figures from banking institutions. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras made a decisive intervention through a parliamentary question he made to the Prime Minister, demanding investigations of the unpaid loans made to conglomerates, media organizations and political parties. At the same time the General Secretary for Transparency G. Sourlas has asked for an investigation of unsecured loans made over the past 20 years, referring to the case of the Bank of Crete. [the bank of Crete was involved in a major corruption scandal in the late 1980s which led to the resignation of several ministers of the then PASOK government] 

HMERISIA  


Ryanair makes a dynamic entry into the Greek market

  • 280 million dollars to be invested for the creation of two new bases in Athens and Thessaloniki airports.

  • 2,800 new workers to be hired

  • Airline beginning routes between London, Milan, Paphos, Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Chania

The Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is attempting to carve out a slice of the air traffic to and from Greece. It is moving ahead with a 280 million dollar investment, creating bases in Athens and Thessaloniki. With domestic flights from Athens to Chania, Rhodes and Thessaloniki, and low-cost tickets it aims to transport 4 million passengers in 2015.