The Minister of Finances Gikas Hardouvelis will be in Brussels on Monday for a critical Eurogroup session, as Athens has yet to come to an agreement with the troika regarding the outstanding bailout program review. On Friday Mr. Hardouvelis contacted the responded via email to the calls for clarifications on the Greek proposals.
According to government sources, Athens explains that it will take additional measures in the second half of 2015, should there be any discrepancies. Mr. Hardouvelis also repeats his commitment to increasing the VAT for hotels, abolishing a series of tax exemptions and a series of other tax interventions and hikes designed to bolster public revenue.
Should the coalition government be unable to come to an agreement with the troika, with the Presidential elections, the political instability may cause early general elections. Many officers and MPs from New Democracy have urged PM Samaras to expedite procedures for the presidential elections, in order to reduce the uncertainty.
The technical extension of the Greek bailout program will be debated today at the Eurogroup. Should the Greek government not accept the terms of the extension, then it will have to return 11 billion euros it borrowed from the EFSF to refinance the banks. Should this be the case, the plans for the ECCL will be put at risk, while the government will also have to consider how it will pay off 4.5 billion euros worth of bonds that mature in March.
