Greece Expanding Scope of Extrajudicial Debt Settlement Mechanism

Greece’s economy ministry appears to have agreed with the country’s creditors on the inclusion in the extrajudicial debt settlement mechanism of individuals who are partners of enterprises in trouble.

The negotiations, which are set to continue Saturday, will further examine whether the debts to be settled in this way will include both debts to banks and the state, or if the process will only concern debts to the tax authorities and the social security funds, as is the case today with freelance professionals, ANA reported.

Expansion of the mechanism’s scope is aimed at including additional categories of debtors, as so far as the results of the system’s operation have not met the original expectations in terms of tackling the bad loans problem.

There has been a series of proposals in this direction that the creditors have provisionally approved and are expected to rubber-stamp at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, Greece is second to last among the European Union’s 28 members in terms of progress toward a digital economy and society, slipping another place this year according to the European Commission’s Digital Economy & Society Index.

The country has dropped to the 27th place, as it is now behind Bulgaria too, and only ahead of Romania, while a review of the 2017 data led to Greece being relegated to 27th last year as well.

“In total over the last few years Greece has not recorded major progress in comparison with other EU member-states. In the last year, Greece’s progress has been somewhat slower than the EU average,” the commission said in a note that is not very flattering for the government in Athens.