The conference call between the MinFin and the troika that was to take place yesterday was cancelled and the MinFin will send an email today in order to provide the necessary clarifications to the requests of troika.

Troika may come by the end of the week but the most likely scenario is that the December 8th Eurogroup will approve a technical extension of the current programme by a few weeks. 

When the review is complete, Greece must apply for its inclusion in the ECCL. 

In this backdrop, there are parliamentarians like the New Democracy spokesman Georgiadis who have asked yesterday to bring forward the election of the Pdt in January, while PM Samaras stated that he will not accept “insane pressure” on cutting down pensions and increase taxes. 

The troika is pushing for more measures like scrapping out the 30% discount of the solidarity tax, increased taxes in tobacco and luxury products, while they question whether the targets of the receipts of the real estate tax will be fetched. 

Referring to Greece’s program, Eurogroup’s head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that “a technical extension is a possibility. We did the same for Portugal” adding that “this could be the case for Greece. But I can only say that if and when the 5th review will be finalized.” He also said that “our aim is to finalize the review as soon as possible” and that “as soon as that is done, we can focus on what is going to happen after Jan. 1”.

According to Bloomberg, an EU official said that “Greece seems increasingly likely to be granted a technical extension of its rescue program” adding that no decision has been taken yet with respect to troika’s return to Athens. The same official said that EU MoFs will discuss Greece’s current and new program on Dec. 8, and are likely to agree if Greece were to request an ECCL credit line.