Greek government in a hurry to deal with the prerequisite measures

A series of parliamentary meetings start Thursday for the Greek governmental coalition. The parliament will be the main stage of political developments due to a number of pending laws and prerequisites for the European partners and the discussion of proposals for further investigation into the Lagarde list.

The new tax bill must be voted on and the seven acts of legislative content ratified by next Monday 14.01 as prerequisites in view of the Euro Working Group next Tuesday. The tax bill will be introduced in parliament tomorrow to be voted on Friday. PASOK and DIMAR have requested changes in a series of articles, but will vote for the bill.

The 7 acts will be submitted on Thursday. They will follow emergency procedures and therefore will be processed at the Committee on Economic Affairs on Friday to receive a ratification the following Monday. The provisions include the trusteeship of Greek ministries, SOEs and local authorities, which will check every 3 months if the relevant budgets are running smoothly. On Thursday 17.01 or (most likely) on Friday 18.01 there will be a discussion and vote on the 3 proposals to set up an preliminary inquiry committee regarding the Lagarde list.

At an emergency meeting at the Finance ministry yesterday, Antonis Samaras gave a mandate to the economy team to settle all outstanding issues related to the tranche of 9.2 billion euros in January by Monday evening.

The aim is to avoid any unexpected occurrences at the Euro Working Group (EWG) meeting in Brussels 

on Monday and Tuesday with the participation of Council of Economic Advisors president Panos Tsakloglou. The meeting will prepare the Eurogroup meeting on Monday, January 21, which is expected to give the official green light for the January tranche.