国际英语新闻：Greek PM calls for national consensus on austerity measures, reforms

The IMF and EU top officials who came to Athens this week for talks with Greek officials made the same suggestions, calling on the Greek government to step up structural reforms in early 2011.

"Greece should speed up procedures to use the regional EU aid funds which are already available," said EU regional funds commissioner Johannes Hahn on Friday in Athens.

Greece has used so far only 15 percent of a 22-billion-euro (29.1 billion dollars) fund secured for regional development projects in the period 2007-2013, due to bureaucracy problems and lack of funds to co-finance these projects. The Greek government seeks to double the "absorption" rate of these funds in 2011.

However, the measures implemented so far and the new changes envisioned in the draft bill were strongly denounced by the labor unions, which organized a new round of protests.

Public transport employees will stage work stoppages, which are to start from Sunday and culminate next Wednesday, the day of a new general strike called by the umbrella labor unions of all state and private sector employees across Greece.

The union of private sector employees GSEE calls for a separate work stoppage and a rally in front of the parliament next Tuesday, the day lawmakers will be debating the draft bill on labor reforms.

"This bill is unacceptable. We will block it with our continuing struggle," said a representative of the union on Friday.