France has been contacting donor states to convince them to delay a deadline offered for Lebanon to launch a number of reforms tied to the more than $11 billion in funds pledged at a conference held in Paris last year, ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday.
To back its request with proof, Paris told donor states that Beirut has already kicked off those reforms when the Cabinet and Parliament approved recently a new plan to restructure Lebanon's electricity sector.
However, the source said that the European response to such request came quickly as the following: “The approval of the electricity plan is something good. However, what is more important is to know when the plan would be implemented.”
Currently, Lebanon’s government faces great challenges, on the local and European levels, to issue the new budget.
Although Lebanon promised at a Paris conference last year to cut its budget deficit, fight corruption, stop wasting economic resources, and launch administrative and financial reforms, the country now faces worsening economic conditions, especially after the cabinet hired new employees at the public sector before the parliamentary elections of May 2018.
Furthermore, states, organizations and international funds expect the cabinet to complete three achievements before releasing funds pledged by the CEDRE Conference.
According to the same sources, “The Cabinet is working under European pressure, particularly from CEDRE donor countries, to speed up a list of requests necessary to protect the Conference and keep it alive.”
All political forces agree that the Paris conference remains the only way to exit the current deteriorating economic situation and that Lebanon should expect its economy to soon collapse in case Beirut fails to cut its budget deficit and therefore loses funds pledged at the CEDRE conference.
Currently, the new draft budget is still in the hands of Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
A leading official who attended meetings held with Hariri to discuss the budget said that the PM realizes the importance of protecting the salaries of employees paid less than LL3 million per month.
The official said the government plans to decrease salaries exceeding $4,000. The decision should involve high-ranking employees, ministers, and deputies in addition to the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker.
