The Hellenic Parliament [official website, in Greek] voted [materials, in Greek] Monday to reform their tax and pension systems in order to ensure the economic turn around of the country. The controversial reforms were apart of the agenda of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras [official website, in Greek], who called [text, PDF, in Greek] for the controversial reforms in order to create a plan to save the country money and prevent further austerity measures:

The plan we are voting today seeks to create a system that on the one hand is sustainable and guarantees pensions of all Greeks and Greek women, of all citizens, and the other will have basic principle of social justice in view of the adverse economic conditions.We proceed, then, to the restoration of the pension system sustainability rails, without compromising the primary pensions for the thirteenth time and without affecting the vast majority of auxiliary. Because the vast majority of pensioners, the frightened people who have seen cuts noon, with the ‘tell, tell’ and the headlines of propaganda impression has passed and that comes next. However, for 92.5%, to 2.1 million pensioners, not cut a penny from their pensions and this is the great achievement of the negotiation effort we made.

The reforms were needed to complete the EU bailout review [JURIST report] and will raise taxes for top earners while at the same time reducing pensions for those who contribute less into the system.

The debt crisis [BBC timeline] in Greece began in 2009 with a down-grade of a credit rating, and in the following years, has led Greece to borrow hundreds of billions of euros. The Greek Parliament approved [JURIST report] a bill in February that provides health insurance and municipality jobs to poor Greek citizens affected by the country’s recent austerity measures. Last October Greek lawmakers approved [JURIST report] a bill containing new austerity measures and economic overhauls under its new bailout program. In April of last year the European Central Bank expressed concerns [JURIST report] about Greece’s draft law that prohibits the government from foreclosing on primary residences where borrowers can prove total wealth requirements as ripe for unscrupulous debtors to engage in strategic defaults without repercussions.