Mitsotakis to ask troika for more time

Minister wants until September, rather than July, to complete mobility scheme

Newly appointedAdministrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to ask the troika on Monday for a two-month extension for the completion of a labor mobility scheme in the civil service when he meets visiting officials for the first time since taking up his position.

Kathimerini understands that Mitsotakis will ask to be given until September to place 12,500 civil ser- vants in the scheme, which will see them moved to other positions in the public sector. The original deadline for the scheme was July. However, the New Democracy lawmaker will argue that the plan left by his predecessor Antonis Manitakis is not workable and needs to be redrawn. The troika wants 25,000 public sector workers to be in the scheme by the end of the year.

Mitsotakis is hoping that he will be able to buy more time with the troika by pointing to the closure of ERT as a sign that the government is taking the task of streamlining the civil service seriously.

The administrative reform minister is to work closely with Education Minister Constantinos Arvanitopoulos and Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou on meeting the troika’s targets. Athanasiou said on Thursday that he would make a priority of addressing temporary court decisions that have allowed some 6,000 contract workers to remain in place beyond the end of their agreements. A number of the public sector employees to be placed in the mobility scheme or sacked are due to come from the education sector.