Spotlight: Greek gov't hails Eurogroup decision on bailout review, critics see more austerity measures

The Greek government hailed on Monday as a very positive development the Eurogroup's decision for the resumption of stalled talks to conclude the pending second review of the third Greek bailout.

Cabinet ministers stressed that Athens achieved to convince its lenders on the progress of the ailing economy and therefore focus will now be shifted to reforms after seven years of austerity, but opposition parties saw more harsh measures on the horizon.

Creditors' envoys will return to Greece next week to hammer out a staff-level agreement on the necessary structural reforms, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday after the conclusion of the meeting of euro zone's finance ministers in Brussels.

The outcome refueled the hope in Athens that the bailout review which, according to the initial schedule should have been concluded a year ago, will close soon to unlock further support to the debt-ridden economy.

The assessment had stalled for several months amid disagreements over budget targets for the coming years and further debt relief.

"We managed to reach an agreement with structural reforms as its main outline, which will not have even one euro of budgetary impact -- that is, not a single euro of additional austerity," Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told local Alpha TV.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) demand for the imminent legislation of additional measures totaling 2 percent of the GDP from 2019 onwards to make up for any missed fiscal targets is no longer on the table, Energy Minister Yorgos Stathakis explained when speaking to SKAI TV.

Any measure taken after the current program expires at the end of 2018 which will burden Greek taxpayers will be offset by another tax relief measure of a similar amount, the minister stressed.

Opposition parties doubted the government's presentation of Monday's development.

The return of the lenders' envoys to Athens is accompanied by additional painful measures, while there is no talk about the debt and quantitative easing, the main opposition New Democracy party commented in a statement.

Others noted that it remained unclear whether with this formula IMF will participate in the current bailout program. In recent months, IMF officials regarded some bailout goals as too ambitious and insisted on imminent debt relief to ensure the sustainability of the Greek debt load. Endit