The surveillance of Greece will gradually subside, Tsakalotos says

Greece expects to make a “clean enough break” with its bailout program when it expires in August, according to Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos.

In an interview to Alpha TV on Thursday evening, Tsakalotos said the main difference in the post bailout era will be the transition from a status in which surveillance by foreign creditors relates to objectives and how they will be achieved, to one in which the objectives that will be achieved will be determined on the basis of the Greek program.

“This will not be a situation in which we had surveillance and then not,” he said, adding that surveillance will “will slowly decrease."

Moreover he said that there are many within the euro zone that are saying “enough with austerity.”

Greece, he said, will have its own program by the spring which will include development goals and social policy.The program will focus on the continuation of the fight against tax evasion and smuggling, public administration, investments and more.

This program, the minister said, will be put to the people in parliamentary elections in 2019, so they “know what lies ahead".

He also told Reuters earlier in the week that discussions would soon commence with euro zone lenders on debt relief along the lines of a French proposal to link the level of debt restructuring to economic performance.

Tsakalotos also added that there is no reason to seek a precautionary credit line.

“The important thing is for the country to come out of technical assistance, to be a normal country without a program,” he said, insisting that when “you enter a program to get out of it.” 

He added that markets also want Greece to be a normal country.