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Greek PM announces additional support measures for islanders

Xinhua, December 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced on Tuesday a series of additional measures to support the residents of the eastern Aegean Greek islands bearing the brunt of the refugee crisis.

Tsipras criticized technocrats from the country's international creditors of underestimating the special conditions of Greece.

"The Greek state will support the islands which carry the burden of all Europe... We will stick to the implementation of the Greek bailout program to the last detail, we will not ask anyone's permission to distribute funds coming from a surplus to those that have the greatest need," Tsipras said during a visit to the island of Nissyros, according to Greek national news agency AMNA.

The Greek premier repeated the declaration he made on December 8 that the islands will be exempt from a new VAT increase agreed with lenders.

On Tuesday he also pledged better health services for the islanders, desalination plans to ensure adequate supply for water and measures to assist the local tourism and agriculture industries.

During his visit to Nissyros, a tiny island with about 1,000 inhabitants, according to AMNA, he talked about "clueless and witless technocrats," referring to International Monetary Fund's stance in ongoing talks regarding the next steps in efforts to exit the seven-year Greek debt crisis.

IMF has still not joined the third Greek bailout sealed in the summer of 2015, expressing objections over its sustainability.

Greek government sources in Athens added on Tuesday that IMF experts have made in the past six years several times projections on the course of the Greek economy which were proved wrong.

The IMF was not requesting further austerity measures from Greece but rather bolder reforms to overcome the crisis and questioned the feasibility of the fiscal targets set by Athens and European lenders,according to an article published on Monday, co-signed by the Director of the IMF's European Department Poul Thomsen.

Labor reform issues and the fiscal gap of 2018 will be the focus of the new round of meetings which started in Athens on Tuesday between the Greek ministers and representatives of creditors with the aim to conclude the second review of the third Greek bailout. Enditem