The IMF Communications Director, Gerry Rice reaffirmed the Fund’s positions on Greece during the regular press briefing in Washington, Thursday. Mr. Rice repeated the matters of dispute between Greece and the organisation, which is one of the partners in the Greek bailout program, including pensions, the labour market, stressing that although some progress had been made in the ongoing talks in Brussels, there was still a lot of work to be done to bridge the differences between the parties. Mr. Rice called on the Greek government to commit itself to a strong “ownership” of the program. The director confirmed a statement made by French Finance Minister Michel Sapin that the fund had indeed requested Greece’s major opposition party New Democracy (ND) to also support the reforms. “..it is indeed something that we have requested not only from Greece, but also from other countries”, he stressed. He added, however, that the organisation had made no contact with any opposition parties in Greece.