Greece relaunches tender to sell gas grid stake
Greece yesterday relaunched a tender for the sale of a majority stake in its natural gas grid operator DESFA, the country’s privatization agency said. Under its latest international bailout, Greece has agreed to sell state assets including a 66 percent stake in DESFA. It aims to conclude the divestment by the end of the year. Italy’s SNAM has said it was interested in buying the stake. A previous 400-million-euro deal to sell the stake to Azerbaijan’s Socar fell through last November after Athens raised DESFA’s tariffs by less than Socar had expected and Socar demanded a lower price. he was not opposed to an open discussion in parliament on the eurozone’s decision to give Greece a new credit lifeline – even though internal party opposition may embarrass Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party just months before the election. Speaking on ARD TV’s “Bericht aus Berlin,” Schaeuble noted the parliamentary budget committee could by itself approve the 8.5-billion-euro loan to Greece, meaning a full debate in parliament was not required. “I don’t have any difficulty at all talking openly about it,” Schaeuble said when asked if the full parliament would discuss the loan to Greece as the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) have demanded. But he said on June 16 that calls from a senior lawmaker in the SPD, Johannes Kahrs, for a full debate on the deal for Greece could unsettle financial markets. Schaeuble said he had talked to conservative lawmakers in parliament about the deal and the role of the