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Government sources have announced that the request for an extension of lending to Greece by the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund will be submitted tomorrow, not today. The Euro Working Group will meet tomorrow too, to decide whether the request is a sufficient basis for the convening of a new meeting of the Eurogroup on Friday evening.
     Today in Brussels, leader of Independent Greeks Panos Kammenos, a coalition partner in the government of SYRIZA and Minister of Defence told journalists that the government would not yield, that the loan agreement was a separate document from the memorandum and that they were ready to do anything if the European partners did not fulfil their demands. Asked by journalists about the plan B of the government if the European partners did not agree with the request for funding without a commitment to reforms, another member of Tsipras’ team, Deputy Social Minister Dimitris Stratoulis resorted to a literary quote. "Our plan B is that when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it, as Paolo Coelho has said."
     On this occasion, the website Το Παρατηρητήτιο has published a cartoon of a conversation between Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis and his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble. Varoufakis asks, "In other words, there can be no loan without terms for its repayment, right?" and Schaeuble replies, "Are you sure that you are an economist?"

     Meanwhile, the Greek Ministry of Finance has disseminated among the accredited journalists the record of negotiations with the lenders, which contains the two speeches of Yanis Varoufakis before the meetings of the Eurogroup on 11 and 16 February, the result of the technical examination by the lenders on 13 and 14 February, as well as the proposals of Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and the Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem. Making the documents public has embarrassed some commentators who recall that there is an element of confidentiality in the negotiations and if one breaks it, this will shake the trust of partners. The Ministry of Finance however justifies its decision with the reproach to Varoufakis that he had had no specific proposals, had not submitted figures to his colleagues and had delivered political speeches.
     Indeed, the document of 29 pages does not contain many figures, prices and terms, but there are a few specific things in it. Greece acknowledges that there is a delay in the revenue side of the budget, but hopes that the treasury can obtain 5.5 billion euro through the following:
- the fight against tax evasion and corruption;
- more effective control;
- changes in the collection system of debts to the state;
- a higher tax rate for the rich.
     Greece firmly opposes the budget with the high primary surplus of 4.5%, which is set in the bailout to Greece, in order for the country to gradually begin to pay its debts. Instead, Varoufakis offers a 1.5% primary budget surplus but the Greek economy needs to stabilise to achieve it.
     As for the pre-election promises of free electricity for 300,000 households and providing housing for the homeless, the Greek Minister of Finance believes that the savings in public administration will finance them.
     In terms of reforms, the government could agree with the following:
- tax reforms;
- reforms in the Court of Auditors;
- more efficient management of public finances;
- fighting corruption;
- E-government;
- improving the business climate;
- reform of the administration of justice;
- implementation of the EU Directives in the field of industrial competitiveness.
     Observers familiar with the negotiations between Greece and its European partners after 2010 are commenting that they have not seen so ungrounded documents from the Greek side since the term of former Prime Minister George Papandreou.