Effie Achtsioglou

The new Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) has started operating even though various issues are still outstanding and with deficits that add up to more than 1 billion euros, as the fund that has absorbed all social security funds has not only been bequeathed 4.2 million worker-members and 2.6 million pensioners, but also the problems and the obstacles of the past.

In a series of meetings with European officials in Brussels Thursday, Labor Minister Effie Achtsioglou said the Greek government was determined to secure an "in principle political agreement" at Monday's summit of eurozone finance ministers, where Greece's progress in implementing the conditions of its third bailout is to be assessed.

Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, was expected to visit Athens on Monday and Tuesday. 
 
Moscovici's Athens two-day agenda included meetings with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Economy Minister Dimitris Papadimitriou and Labor Minister and Social Insurance Minister Effie Achtsioglou.

Labor Minister Effie Achtsioglou will be the first minister to head into the new round of talks for the second bailout review starting on Tuesday in Athens, in what the new minister admits will be tough negotiations about the future of labor relations in Greece.

The new Labor and Social Insurance Minister Effie Achtsioglou - at 31 years old the, the youngest member of the new cabinet -- on Monday underlined that pension reform had been completed during the previous bailout review and was no longer on the agenda.