Unilateral 'freezing' of auctions and extension for VAT in catering

Until the end of the week we will legislate for the auctions, the Greek government says after the failure of negotiations with the Troika.

Following the joint meeting of Stournaras and Hadjidakis with the auditors, the Thomsen group will leave from Athens and to return in January to close the open issues.

The decision for the EAS will be taken tomorrow night at the Eurogroup meeting. If the recommendation of the Troika is positive for Greece, the council of finance ministers will decide tomorrow evening and the ESM will approve Thursday the tranche of 1 billion euros to be given to Greece by the end of the year.

As a Development ministry official said for the primary residence auctions, "despite a further approach to many issues we have no agreement yet. Our goal is to legislate by the end the week. We prefer to be in agreement with the Troika or at least without their disagreement. The new framework will be presented to the parties supporting the government."

This statement prejudges that until Thursday there will be a filing of the relevant provision in parliament, although officials of the Development ministry did not exclude the possibility to file it as a Legislative Act if the Greek government does not manage to pass it until December 20 when the parliament will close for the holidays.

According to what a Finance ministry official said about the VAT in catering, "it looks like we will legislate on our own to extend the measure." While the auditors disagree about its impact on government revenues, he said that "in January we will discuss corresponding equivalent measures, the amount of which will be determined then." He also ruled out any chance for new measures on wages and pensions.