ATHENS, Greece (AP) — International debt inspectors started new talks Thursday with the Greek government that will determine whether the country keeps receiving vital rescue loans or is forced to default and potentially leave the common European currency union.
Later Thursday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will hold talks with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during his first official visit to Athens since mid-2009, when Greece's acute financial crisis broke out.
Talks with the EU, IMF and ECB inspectors — commonly known as the troika — are focusing on the progress of a program of stringent spending cuts and other austerity measures imposed on Greece as a condition for two international bailouts keeping the country solvent.
Samaras, whose conservatives head a three-party coalition government, discussed the proposed cutbacks with his junior coalition partners before his meeting with Barroso.
Analyst Martin Koehring, from the Economist Intelligence Unit, said Samaras'month-old government faces major political risks as it has promised to renegotiate the bailout terms.
Later Thursday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will hold talks with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during his first official visit to Athens since mid-2009, when Greece's acute financial crisis broke out.
Talks with the EU, IMF and ECB inspectors — commonly known as the troika — are focusing on the progress of a program of stringent spending cuts and other austerity measures imposed on Greece as a condition for two international bailouts keeping the country solvent.
Samaras, whose conservatives head a three-party coalition government, discussed the proposed cutbacks with his junior coalition partners before his meeting with Barroso.
Analyst Martin Koehring, from the Economist Intelligence Unit, said Samaras'month-old government faces major political risks as it has promised to renegotiate the bailout terms.
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