Commission: 16 reforms have not been completed

Greece needs to achieve 16 specific reforms by the end of 2018 in which progress has been made but none has been completed, the European Commission said in its first enhanced surveillance report for the country, published on Wednesday.

The delays cover all six policy areas: fiscal structural reforms, social welfare, financial sector, labour market reforms, privatisation's and public administration and justice.

“To date, all of them are progressing but none has been yet completed,” the Commission said.

It added however that, in many instances, “it is not unexpected” that reforms with an end-year deadline have not been completed by mid-November, which is the cut-off date for this first enhanced surveillance report.

However, the Commission noted delays for several specific reforms that would “need to be addressed urgently” to ensure that all are completed as soon as possible and well before the issuance of the second enhanced surveillance report towards end of February 2019.

Those include the staffing of the independent revenue administration (IAPR), the clearance of arrears, the roll-out of the primary health care system and centralised health-care procurement, the legal framework of the NPE resolution tools – and in particular the household insolvency law – the secondary legislation to define the installation and operation licensing procedures for activities in the sector of environmental infrastructures, the transfer of the Olympic Centre to HCAP and the appointment of administrative secretaries.

The Commission also said it considers that the final package of measures to be included in the 2019 draft budget is “a balanced approach to meet agreed fiscal and economic goals in a manner that is also supportive of social inclusion.”