Greece signals concessions in crunch talks with lenders

30-Apr (Reuters) – Greece’s leftist government offered its biggest concessions so far in a race to remove roadblocks in crunch talks with lenders on a cash-for-reforms package on Thursday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s three-month-old government is under growing pressure at home and abroad to reach an agreement with European and IMF lenders to avert a national bankruptcy. A new poll showed over three-quarters of Greeks feel Athens must strike a deal at any cost to stay in the euro.

An enlarged team of Greek negotiators was due to meet representatives of the so-called Brussels Group of lenders to discuss which reforms Greece will turn into legislation rapidly in exchange for aid. Athens says it needs fresh aid before a 750 million euro payment to the IMF falls due on May 12.

Elected on promises to end austerity and scrap an unpopular EU/IMF bailout program, Tsipras had so far refused to give ground on so-called “red lines” – pensions, labor reform and state asset sales – that are core to his leftist party’s agenda.

But Athens said late on Wednesday it was ready to sell a majority stake in its two biggest ports and to concede on value-added tax rates and some pension reforms, in the clearest signal yet that it is ready to back down for a deal.

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