Troika asking anew for written ministerial pledges

The Friday night meeting between the Troika representatives and the Greek premier revealed that the former will offer no bargain this weekend, as they are expected to try and settle all issues that remain unresolved.

Sources say they might even ask the government for written commitments, a preliminary sweetener during rough times and unfulfilled promises.

The Greek side has shown limited progress in sensitive matters such as privatizations or the structural changes they had said would be put into effect. And these, according to Paul Thomsen, Matthias Morse and Claus Masuch, should be implemented soon enough if Greece wants to patch the “holes” of the new package deal.

This “hole” in the 2011 budget which, as expected, could affect the 2012 one, is still to be gone through.

Nevertheless, they did discuss the deregulation of professions, certain measures for the Labour market, boosting development and the painful issue of the state of the health system.

No matter how far the Troika and the Greek side will go in analyzing the aforementioned “thorny” agenda, government FinMin Evangelos Venizelos will have to be ready to answer questions and brief his EU counterparts during the Monday Eurogroup meeting. After all, this is the basic challenge Venizelos has to face.

Provided that everything goes as planned and the problems of the Greek side are thoroughly examined on Monday, the country will also ask for 60-billion-euro aid so as to finance the PSI and the re-capitalization of the local banks.