The European Commission (EC) is waiting for the resumption of the privatization of Greek gas company DEPA as soon as possible, the spokesperson for the EC Simon O'Connor said to journalists on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reported.
Deputy Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change of Greece Asimakis Papageorgiou said yesterday that the tender for the sale of DEPA will be repeated. On Monday the participants of the tender were required to submit binding offers to purchase DEPA and operator of natural gas networks DESFA.
The Dow Jones agency reported, with reference to sources, that the Greek government has not received any offers for DEPA.
"The Greek government will now have to evaluate how this happened and how to amend the situation. This issue can be discussed during the visit of ECB, EU and IMF," O'Connor said.
The condition of the Greek economy, which has already approved two packages of external financial assistance, is evaluated on a quarterly basis by representatives of creditors from the workers of European Central Bank, European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Privatization in Greece can be considered part of the program for saving the country from default. Creditors are counting on the income from the sale of state assets, when they were determining the amount of required external financial help for the state. The reduction of revenues from privatization threatens with appearance of holes in the budget of Greece and with the need for additional financing.
"The privatization of DEPA should be resumed as soon as possible in order to minimize the potential impact on the schedule of privatization program," O'Connor said.
He did not comment on how the situation with the privatization of DEPA may be reflected on the recovery program of the state of default.
"Now the third assessment is being carried out (state of the Greek economy - Ed.) within the framework of the second financial help to Greece (by the experts of "three" - Ed.). The state of the privatization program will be discussed in the coming days. There should also be talks about its possible impact on the budget, sustainability of state debt, and other aspects, " the EC representative said.