Greece: debt dispute – these are the sticking points – SPIEGEL ONLINE

In the negotiations between Athens and its creditors, it is now really tight. Some Greek politicians have warned already the Transfer of a credit tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 5 June is endangered. The funders of Greece therefore insist on a quick breakthrough in the months-long dispute over the reform requirements for new loans.

A surprisingly on Monday evening in Berlin has come at Chancellor Angela Merkel top round with IMF chief Christine Lagarde, ECB President Mario Draghi, EU President Jean-Claude Juncker and French President Francois Hollande is considering the Greek Government to make a final offer and thus to force a decision in Athens. According to the Reuters news agency is working intensively on a draft of an auxiliary agreement. “We’re almost done,” said an insider of the Agency.

Whether rises this plan, however, is difficult to predict. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says his government had submitted on Monday even a complete draft for an agreement. This contains “realistic” proposals to bring the country out of crisis. The decision on an agreement lay now in the creditors, ie at the top representatives of European Union, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank. . Of these, he had so far received “no plan of agreement”

The fact that the negotiations are on a knife edge, is mainly because that the current government in Athens – unlike the previous government of George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras – also a national bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro zone does not exclude. In recent rounds of negotiations, the creditors Athens could always dictate the terms with this pressure medium. Tsipras but are at least outwardly so far hard.

• There are differences, among others, still in the pension reform :

  There, the remaining sticking points in the negotiations dispel is correspondingly difficult. In the point the creditors require the Greeks significantly tougher austerity measures. A further reduction of pensions declines Athens but strictly. The pensioners have already lost 40 percent of their income and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has given his word that this is a red line has been reached. However, he is clearly prepared to make a merger of pension funds and the abolition of many early retirement.

• It is also difficult to make the negotiations on the reform of the Greek labor market . The donors require more flexible collective agreements and wages. In this issue stand in the negotiations between the two sides still major differences.
• Even with the VAT is one a little apart. The Greeks have tax rates of 7, 14 and 22 percent, the lenders ask for a two-tier VAT of 11 and 23 percent. The main point of this is an increased taxation of the important tourism sector.
• When it comes to budgeting Greece wants more money for social assistance. Therefore, should not be “primary budget surplus” (without interest on debt) in 2015 three percent of gross domestic product, but less than 1.0 percent, to rise thereafter. That was enough for the IMF has not, the EU Commission would accept the reportedly.

In the Greek debt crisis must now, according to EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici both Greece and its lenders move. “There are still efforts of both sides to make to then been long,” Moscovici said on Tuesday the French radio station France Inter.