Government seeking a political solution for red housing loans

The coalition government aims is going to request that the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici provides a political solution to address the ‘red’ housing loans. The goal is to maintain protection from auctions for primary residences with a value of up to 200,000 euros for married couples. The institutions however want this threshold to drop to 120,000.

At the same time the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos are going to underline the need for decoupling the bailout program review from the bank recapitalization. The ECB’s Mario Draghi and IMF’s Christine Lagarde are on Athens’ side, however the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble – who effectively controls the Eurogroup – is reacting to such a prospect.

Berlin and the Eurogroup will only greenlight the recapitalization if the institutions agree to sign a joint statement, where it will stress that sufficient progress has been achieved in the review and that its completion is within view. In order for the review to begin Athens must implement 48 prior actions, which in turn will allow the payment of the 2-billion-euro tranche, while an additional list of measures will unlock an additional one billion euros worth of aid.

Moscovici arrives in Athens

The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici arrives in Athens on Tuesday for a series of meetings. At 17:30 he will be received by PM Alexis Tsipras and at 18:30 he will visit the Ministry of Finances to meet Minister Tsakalotos and Alternate Minister Giorgos Houliarakis.

On Wednesday Mr. Moscovici will met with the Minister of Labor Giorgos Katrougalos at 10:30, followed by a press conference at the offices of the EU delegation in Greece. Later on in the afternoon he will attend a business lunch with the Minister of Economy Giorgos Stathakis and his Deputy Minister of NSRF Issues Alexis Charitsis, before heading to the archeological site of the Acropolis, the restoration of which is in party funded by the EU.