HELLENIC REPUBLIC
THE PRIME MINISTER
Athens,
June
30
th
,
2015
To the President of the European Commission
Mr. Jean Claude Juncker
To the President of the European Central Bank
Mr. Mario Draghi
To the Managing Director of the IMF
Ms Christine Lagarde
Dear Managing Director, dear Presidents,
I am
writing to inform you on the position of the
Hellenic Republic
towards the list of
Prior Actions of the Staff Level Agreement
as published
on the European Comm
ission
website on June 28
th
2015. The Hellenic Rep
ublic is prepared to accept this Staff Level
Ag
reement
subject to the following amendments, additions
or
clarifications
,
as part o
f
an
extension of the expiring EFSF program and
the new ESM Loan Agreement for which a
request was submitted today
,
Tuesday June 30
th
2015
.
As you will
note,
our amendmen
ts
are
concrete and
they
fully
respect the robustness and credibility of the
design of the
overall
program.
1.
VAT reform:
Maintain the 30% discount on islands, to be applied to the new rates.
2.
Fiscal structural measures:
Gradually increase the advance
payment of individual business income tax to 100 percent
and phase out the preferential tax treatment for farmers (including the subsidies for excise
on diesel oil) by end
-
2017.
Reduce the expenditure ceiling for military spending by €200 million in 2016 a
nd €400
million in 2017 through
a targeted set of actions, including a reduction in headcount and
procurement.
3.
Pensions:
The 2010 reform will be fully implemented but the 2012 reform (sustainability factor) will be
postponed until the new legislative re
form is implemented in October 2015.
EKAS will be phased
-
out by end
-
2019 but without any immediate action on the top 20% of
beneficiaries.
All nuisance charges will be phased out by end
-
2017, starting from October 31, 2015.
4.
Labour markets:
The new fram
ework will be legislated in autumn 2015.
5.
Product markets:
Immediately implement specific recommendations from OECD’s toolkit 1 (tourist rentals,
tourist buses, truck licenses, code of conduct for traditional foodstuff and eurocodes on
building materials
), toolkit 2 (beverages and petroleum products), and open the restricted
professions of notaries, actuaries, and court bailiffs, liberalize the market for gyms and
eliminate significant portion of nuisance charges.
Moreover, in cooperation with the OECD,
implement an ambitious reform package
including:
?
Create One
-
Stop
-
Shop (OSS) services for businesses (best practice analysis, as well as
a comprehensive roadmap already prepared and completed in cooperation with the
OECD);
?
Conduct immediately a comprehensi
ve competition assessment on specific sectors
characterized by oligopolistic practices (e.g. construction, wholesale trade,
agricultural products, media, etc.) and adopting recommendations accordingly
(roadmap and timelines already prepared by the OECD);
?
I
mplement immediately a comprehensive strategy against corrupt business
practices, for example in the area of public procurement procedures (roadmap and
timeline already prepared by the OECD).
ADMIE will be split from the PPC into a separate legal entity under state majority ownership.
Thank you in advance for your support. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Cc
:
-
Mr. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Chairperson of the Board o
f Governors of ESM and
President of the Eurogroup
-
Mr. Klaus P. Regling
,
Managing Director of the ESM