Troika to arrive next week after all
The European Commission confirmed around midnight on Friday that it has received the necessary guarantees it had asked from the Finance Ministry in Athens, which means that early next week the creditor representatives will after all arrive in Greece to begin the next round of talks with the government as planned.
While a Commission spokesman had said on Friday evening that the visit was not to take place yet as Athens had not sent the details required by the troika, the leading inspectors of the Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be starting their negotiations and monitoring in Greece on Tuesday, as the Finance Ministry had stressed all along.
At 12 noon on Tuesday the troika will visit the Finance Ministry and at 4 p.m. the Labor Ministry, according to the government.
The IMF also insisted that its top representative Poul Thomsen will be in Athens late on Monday to start talks with the government on Tuesday.
Deutsche Welle reported early on Saturday that talks will start after a teleconference that Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras will have with his eurozone peers, ahead of the Eurogroup meeting of November 14.
