Signing the DESFA deal on Saturday

The cancellation of Samaras’ flight to Baku, Azerbaijan brought forth scenarios for cancellation of the agreement for DESFA, contradicted however by the imminent signing of the between the Armenian Socar and HRADF.

Socar head Rovnag Abdullayev will be in Athens Saturday to sign the agreement with the HRADF chairman for the privatization of the transmistor of the gas system in Greece. Abdullayev’s visit is considered certain as the final consultations were made yesterday afternoon. According to reports, a lot of pressure was exercised in recent weeks from various business interests at both the Greek government and the European Commission to cancel the deal. Greek government sources, however, say that there was never a real danger. Certainly the agreement that will be signed Saturday will have to be approved by the relevant EU institutions, however, the same sources say it will be more of a formal process to be completed within the first half of 2014. Socar will gain control of DESFA for the sum of 400 million euros. For the Greek government is a significant development as it wants to prove that privatizations have been unblocked.

As for the rumors that the failure of the Prime Minister's aircraft was a pretext, the government staff categorically rejects them, as Samaras will fly Thursday morning for the summit in Brussels via a commercial airliner.