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The first preliminary monitoring of the implementation of the preliminary measures under the third rescue programme did not start well for Athens. Late last night it became clear that the Euroworking group meeting that was scheduled for today would be postponed. According to the sources from the Greek Ministry of Finance, the only point on its agenda was to assess the implementation of the first package of preliminary measures. The same sources indicate that the meeting has been postponed for several days.

At the same time, the international news agency Bloomberg reports that the decision to pay the first tranche of financial assistance, amounting to 2 billion euro, depends entirely on the application of the preliminary measures and will be taken next week. The reason indicated for this is that the law voted by the Greek Parliament last Saturday does not include all the conditions agreed between Athens and its creditors.

Their implementation will be the main topic of the talks between the heads of creditor institutions and the Greek government over the next three days.

Creditors require Athens to implement without delay the 48 measures voted by parliament. These include the settlement of non-performing bank loans, cancelling the legal protection for mortgaged homes, eliminating early retirement and completing the privatisations of the Public Power Corporation DEI, the peripheral airports and the gas market. If Athens is able to implement the measures, then a decision of the council of euro zone finance ministers on granting the tranche of 2 billion euro will not be required.

The Greek government in turn claims that the measures will be implemented in November and thus, the official monitoring of the state of Greece’s economy will give a positive assessment, which will be followed by the recapitalisation of local banks. The Greek media recall that the European Central Bank has set 15 November as the deadline for its completion.

The four supervisory bodies and the Greek government will hold their first round of meetings today. The first meeting started with a delay because Minister of Finance Efklidis Tsakalotos arrived 10 minutes after its start that was scheduled for 09:00 am. He made no statements to the media.

State Minister Alekos Flambouraris arrived almost half an hour later. He said he did not believe that the postponement of the Euroworking group meeting was associated with the negotiations. According to the Greek media, the fact that the Ministers were late in coming irritated creditor representatives.

After the meeting, Efklidis Tsakalotos was concise and stated that it was "a first introductory meeting."

Currently, creditors are in talks with Deputy Minister of Finance Trifon Alexiadis and at 2:00 pm they will meet with Minister of Economy George Stathakis.

At 3:30 pm, they will have a meeting with Minister of Employment George Katrougalos and Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Solidarity Teano Fotiou.

It is worth noting that the meetings are not held in the building of the Ministry of Finance but in a central Athens hotel where creditor representatives are staying.