New meeting between Papademos and the Troika

PM Lucas Papademos has a new meeting with the Troika at 12.00 noon in an effort to save what can be saved from the labour issues, since the auditors insist on very harsh measures .

Furthermore, as Proto Thema reveales today in its printed version, the auditors have requested that they control the process of layoffs in the public sector themselves.

Intensive consultations between the critical ministries, especially Economics and Labour, for the new memorandum continue today, in anticipation of a critical meeting of political leaders at midday.

And it is quite possible that the Troika will be called to Maximos Mansion as well, to explain its harsh stance and hear the arguments of the leaders in a final showdown, in the case of course that the latter do achieve a common front in negotiations.

The Greek government is asked to give a fight on two fronts, labour and financial issues. A large thorn, and the culmination of the negotiations, is the cuts in wages in the private sector, the bonuses and supplementary pensions, where there are long delays that give excuses to t Troika to harden its stance and push for double cuts than those originally accepted, i.e. 30% instead of 15% -20%.

At the meeting of political leaders, deputy prime minister and Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos will be present as well to inform them about the negotiations with the Troika.

As a government official said "there are difficulties and it depends on how we manage the issues and how we will discuss them again with our partners. We have reached a satisfactory point of agreement. We've improved a lot. The Troika is focusing on everything. And we have tried to rule out some things and improve others. The whole labour package is on the table. We are trying to take some things out, but they will have to be satisfied with what’s left. The basic problem is the package of labour relations and of course there is a problem with financial measures which if only based on the needs of the budget, they would be a small problem because the implementation of the 2011 budget worked really well compared to the information we provided for the 2012 budget. The deficit is expected to move at decent levels, and is very close to the information in the hands of the parliament."

They know that they are creating a financial problem

According to the same official, the Troika knows that what is beimg asked for is creating fiscal problems. "These issues have been discussed extensively, and not only with Thomsen, Morse and Masuch, but also with Barroso, Rompuy, Rehn, Lagarde and Dragan, with everyone who was present today at the Eurogroup teleconference. We have made a superhuman negotiation. This is why the leaders must help us too. And after all, they can continue the negotiations with the Troika themselves instead of sticking to what the prime minister or finance minister has to tell them."

As for the Troika and the spirit that prevails in Europe, the government official acknowledged that "their goal is to help Greece become competitive. They do this in a certain way, as they see fit, not as we understand it, supposedly knowing specificities, conditions, and possibilities. This conflict is based on the correlation of forces which is very well known. Member-states have certain priorities. AAA states met yesterday and have a certain perception. And you know that the AAA states were reduced to 4 from the previous 6. This perception is widespread. There is no one with a different perception except us. There are countries, fronts or allies to this. The agreement of the heads is not implicit but necessary. They will discuss labour, fiscal, and financial issues. The questions they must answer are very specific, very difficult and quite existential."