New Minister of Finance Kikis Kazamias has begun a round of contacts to discuss the first package of fiscal consolidation measures, which has been agreed on with the political parties and has been enriched.

The purpose of the meetings is to achieve the broadest possible consensus and secure a unanimous vote of relevant laws at the end of the week, so that a positive message for the recovery of the economy is sent abroad.

Kazamias told CNA today that the top priority of the first package of measures was “to defuse the time bomb of the pension scheme.”

He said that he began contacts on Monday and would continue through Tuesday till Wednesday with meetings with the social partners, the trade unions and the parliamentary parties, which he was briefing on the intention of the Government to pass the first package of measures from the Council of Ministers on Wednesday afternoon and from the House of Representatives on Thursday or Friday.