Samaras: To the Summit after the EAS and the 1 billion tranche agreements

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will travel Thursday to Brussels for the summit with open issues in the negotiations with the troika.

For the government it was a positive development that the Euroworking Group decided yesterday for the disbursement of the 1 billion tranche pending from last July. The decision was essentially political and accepted the setting in which the Greek government insisted the Defence Systems be liquidated while in operation and maintain their export character.

However, issues relating to the next assessment upon which the tranche of 3.9 billion euros depends are still open. Troika believes the unilateral legislation for budget, auctions and other issues that affect and influence the budgetary gap of 2014 changes the overall context of negotiations. Thus, the return in January will depend on the consultations that will take place.

The Greek government would prefer the negotiation be completed and the legislation be approved by the troika so as not to bear its own issues at the EU presidency, as was Merkel’s admonition on both sides.

However, the settings Troika called for would not be passed by the Greek parliament. Even so, the legislation on the taxation of property and the release of auctions encountered strong opposition from MPs of the coalition government.

There is also an interpretation that the government has implemented most of what troika asked for and the disagreement is a pretext to pass the settings more easily from the Greek parliament after having exhausted the time limits and being forced to pass the bill for auctions on Saturday under the urgency procedure.

However, if the difference with troika is real there is a risk for the Greek government to engage in the new year in an endless negotiation and be forced to take additional measures to get the disbursement of the pending tranche. The Greek side would prefer to not have outstanding issues in April when Eurostat will confirm the primary surplus and the debate on the resolution of Greek debt will open.