Pension at 67 to pass the measures

The PM's announcement that the country will seek to extend the measures until 2016 started the countdown for the approval of the new austerity measures and their coming to parliament.

Within the next ten days troika and the political leaders must finalize the package of 11.6 billion euros and get it approved by the parliament, to prepare the auditors' report that should be presented at the EU summit on October 18-19.

Starting today and over the next few days there will be the final meetings for the cuts in the public sector that will bear the heavier burden of cuts. “Thorns” are considered the new and larger cuts in Health, local governments, Defense but mainly in the wage expenses of the public sector.

To avoid horizontal layoffs to the public sector, the government has proposed to troika a plan of early retirement for 40,000 civil servants.

But the private sector too will suffer a new blow. Although spending and wage cuts are primarily for the public sector, the government is attempting to create new flexible labour relations so the free market will absorb more unemployed contractors from ministries and to halt recession and unemployment.

Within this week the measures should get the green light from the government partners as well. The increase of the retirement age to 67, the horizontal cuts and changes to labour relations are coming to the discussion table. It is considered that the increase in the retirement age limit is the key measure that will judge whether the package will close or not.