L'Orient Today

“The time to act is now,” European Union ambassador to Lebanon Ralph Tarraf said, expressing concern over delays in implementing reforms after a meeting joining European Union ambassadors and the Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee. “For the first time we directly tackled the practical and real obstacles,” committee head MP Ibrahim Kanaan said. Tarraf “implored MPs to live up to their responsibilities” in implementing reforms paving “the path to recovery” such as “passing a realistic budget, bank secrecy, and capital controls law.” The International Monetary Fund included the aforementioned reforms in an April preliminary agreement with Lebanon as conditions the country must meet to unlock financial assistance. Representatives from the United States, France and Saudi Arabia urged Lebanon to form a government capable of implementing the IMF-stipulated reforms and to elect a president within the constitutional deadline – set at Oct. 31, the end of President Michel Aoun’s term. An IMF delegation released on Thursday an assessment after the end of a three-day visit to Lebanon, saying that “despite the urgency," little progress has been made to implement the necessary reforms.