Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-09-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greece will complete prior actions by end September, Eurozone official says

[01] Greece will complete prior actions by end September, Eurozone official says

He noted, however, that it would not be a problem if this was done by the end of the month, since there was no immediate pressure on Greece's liquidity. The official said he had been given assurances by the Greek side that all pre-requisites will be met by end September while pointing out that the 2.8 billion euros will cease to be available at the end of October.

Two days before the informal Eurogroup in Bratislava, the official said that Eurozone finance ministers will be briefed on the current state of play by their Greek counterpart, with respect to completing the prior actions. These include privatisations, the energy market, a revenues agency and the management of Greek banks.

Regarding the new Privatisation Fund, the Eurozone official said this was not yet operational since the appointment of the supervisory board was still pending. He referred to some "surprises" in connection with this but refused to go into further details, though confirming that French official Jacques Le Pape was one of the two members proposed by the institutions.

The official said that the ELSTAT case was not on the Eurogroup agenda but did not rule out the possibility that one of the ministers might raise the issue.

With respect to the second review of the Greek programme, the official said the representatives of the institutions will be travelling to Athens in coming weeks to begin preparatory talks and expressed confidence that it might be completed within the autumn, despite including some tough issues relating to the labour market.

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