A/HRC/25/50/Add.1 billion by the end of 2015, to keep the debt sustainable; and implementation of structural reforms to improve competitiveness of the economy and growth prospects.26 25. The loan was to be disbursed in several instalments from May 2010 until June 2013. Owing to the worsening recession, however, in October 2011, the State’s European partners agreed to provide it with a second bailout loan of €130 billion. This was conditional not only on the implementation of another austerity package (together with the privatization and structural reforms outlined in the initial programme), but also a restructuring of all Greek public debt held by private creditors (approximately 58 per cent of total public debt) so as to reduce the overall public debt burden by about €110 billion. Under this debt restructuring (known as “Private Sector Initiative”, or PSI+) creditors were asked to accept lower interest rates and a 53.5 per cent face value loss. 26. According to information available to the Independent Expert, approximately 15,000 Greek families holding Government bonds were included in the Private Sector Initiative without their consent.27 At current market prices, their bonds have less than 30 per cent of their nominal value. 27. The Independent Expert is concerned at allegations that, when purchasing their bonds, some Greek investors were misled by bank personnel who failed to adhere to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID Directive 2004/39/EC). He also received information that other bondholders relied on representations contained in official European Union and European Central Bank documentation as, well as statements made by public institutions, namely the Bank of Greece and the Public Debt Management Agency, on the State’s economic health. 28. The Independent Expert is also concerned that the new maturity period for the bonds (30 years) may be too long for some older individual bondholders, who do not expect to live long enough to enjoy the return on their investment. Furthermore, some of the bondholders who invested a substantial amount of savings in bonds that they understood to be relatively safe investments for their retirement, or had planned to fund their own healthcare needs or care of disabled family members from these savings, are experiencing serious financial hardship, particularly against the backdrop of severe cuts to pensions and other social benefits. He therefore urges the Government to address urgently the plight of these investors, particularly the elderly, to investigate fully the claims that public employees misled bondholders, and to take appropriate action against those found to have done so. C. Austerity measures 29. Under the adjustment programme, the Government committed to implement rigorous austerity measures to bring the deficit down to 3 per cent of GDP by 2014. In addition to increases in value-added-tax rates, the measures included reducing public sector jobs by 150,000 through 2015, a recruitment freeze in the public sector, reduction of public sector wages, raising the retirement age, cuts in social benefits amounting to 1.5 per cent of GDP (elimination of pension bonuses, a nominal pension freeze and the introduction of means testing for unemployment benefits), eliminating bonuses and allowances, and cutting 26 27 These measures were outlined in a memorandum of understanding that has been updated several times. See European Commission, “The Second Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece – Third Review, July 2013” (available from http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_paper/2013/pdf/ocp159_en.pdf), pp. 99-222. This was possible because Law 4050/2012 required that a majority of bondholders convene and that a “super majority” agree to tender their bonds for exchange and accept amendments to their terms. 9