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After a 38-day break, the negotiations between the Greek government and the lenders’ representatives have been resumed. At twelve o’clock the members of the supervisory Troika, namely Paul Thomsen, Matthias Morse and Klaus Masuch, crossed the threshold of the Ministry of Finance to meet Yiannis Stournaras and his team.

The arrival of the representative of the International Monetary Fund, Paul Thomsen, was provoking as a citizen outside the Ministry threw a handful of coins at him. According to eyewitnesses, some of them fell on the roof of his car and the rest on the sidewalk. Policemen took away the protester and, after checking him in the nearest police station, released him.

The commotion after the meeting of the supervisory Troika with the finance team of the Greek government was even greater. The three representatives of the lenders left the building of the ministry through the basement, through a "secret" door and under police protection. While getting into their cars, angry officials, who had surrounded the building of the Ministry, booed them and shouted angry slogans against them.

The first topic of the discussion was the budget gap for 2014 and the privatisations. Therefore, members of the management of the privatisation fund and the adviser to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who is responsible for these matters, attended the meeting as well.

The talks between the Troika and the finance team of the Greek government were interrupted by a protest inside the building of the Ministry. Employees of the Ministry of Development, who have been included in the mobility programme, went down the stairs from the 7th floor, where there are offices of the Ministry, to the 6th, where the meetings were taking place, to protest.

They shouted in loudspeakers slogans against the Troika’s members, urging them to leave with the call "Go home", and tried to enter the hall where the negotiations were being held. Some minutes later, the security forces pushed back the protesters to the 7th floor, where they continued to shout their slogans.

The new round of meetings is the continuation of the talks between the Greek government and the lenders’ representatives which were interrupted on 27 September when the rift was due to the cancellation of their meeting with the Minister of Employment and Social Security, Yiannis Vroutsis.

In order to prevent such a turn of negotiations, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has convened a meeting with the Finance Minister and his Deputy to define the basic guidelines of Greece’s position.

Greek media comment that the negotiations will not be able to end soon as the Greek government is delaying the implementation of its commitments. According to them, the discussions may continue until January or even until February next year, when Greece must obtain, at any cost, the tranche under the loan agreement in order to be able to repay the amounts due.

The Troika's position is clear, namely that budget cuts for 2014 have to be adopted first and then subsequently decisions made to fill the gap in revenue which, according to the representatives of the lenders, will amount to 5-6 billion euro.

According to sources, the main issues in the negotiations are as follows:

- Budget cuts to the amount of 2.9 billion euro - On Monday, a source from the Ministry of Finance said that the lenders had increased the amount from the initial 2.5 billion euro.

- Mobility programme and the cuts of civil servants - The Greek government has not cut 12,500 employees, as provided in an agreement with the Troika. Due to this, it is very unlikely for the lenders’ representatives to accept its request for a two-month postponement of the second wave of as many cuts, which are scheduled to be made by the end of this month. The situation with 4,000 layoffs which are to be made by the end of 2013 seems equally complicated. The Troika accepts as part of them just 2,000 out of the 2,600 redundancies in the former broadcaster ERT and refuses to involve the dismissals of guilty officials or the removal of people with temporary contracts. It is expected that the meeting of the lenders with the Minister of State Reform, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will take place on Friday.

- Bill on social security - The bill proposed by the relevant Minister is not winning the consent of the members of the Troika for the following two reasons: Firstly, because they do not believe that the measures contained therein will actually save 500 million euro, mainly from the reduction of non-payment of contributions. Secondly, because they do not consider the specific amount to be sufficient to fill the gaps in the social security funds in 2014 since it is expected that their requirements for additional financing will exceed 1.5 billion euro.

- Taxation of real estate - The representatives of the lenders do not seem convinced that its payment should be separated from electricity bills. The contradictions and the reactions on the part of New Democracy and PASOK will probably strengthen the position of the Troika.

- Arms companies - Two of the four preconditions for the payment of the next tranche of 1 billion euro are literally up in the air. One is the mobility programme in the public sector and the other is the plan for the recovery of the arms enterprises EAC and ELBO. While the Greek government insists on dividing their activities into military and civilian and on allowing the first to continue to function, the Troika wants them closed.