Alternate Labor Minister Anastasios Petropoulos told Parliament Plenary that social security issues are turning into a major issue for Greece during debate on the State budget for 2016.  He said that the government is being called to implement bailout commitments worth 4.2 bln euros in the coming year, however some of these commitments had been made during the governance of the conservative New Democracy (ND) and socialist PASOK coalition.

He did not deny that there may be new painful measures imposed on pensions with press reports pointing to calls by Greece’s creditors (EC, ECB, IMF, ESM) for 15% reductions in pensions of more than 800 euros or slashes of 30% to pensions of more than 1,000 euros or horizontal cuts of 6% to all pensions.

Furthermore, Petropoulos invited all political factions to attend dialogue so that Greece doesn’t miss out on its last chance.