Greece, EU strike 'preliminary deal' on coal-fired plants sale, says minister

Greece and the European Union have reached a "preliminary deal" on the coal-fired plants the country will sell to comply with an EU court ruling, Greek Energy Minister George Stathakis said on Monday.

Responding to the market regulator's request to comment on media reports, dominant power utility Public Power Corp (PPC) said Greece and EU competition authorities had converging views on the plants to be divested but there was no final agreement yet.

Under its latest international bailout signed in 2015, Greece agreed that PPC, which is 51 percent owned by the state, would sell plants equal to about 40 percent of its coal-fired capacity by June next year after a European court ruled that the utility had abused its dominant position in the coal market.

Athens and the EU Commission have been in talks since July, trying to define which plants will be put up for sale.<...