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The Greek government is going to unilaterally extend the protection mode of the principal place of residence of debtors under certain conditions if it fails to convince the Troika in Paris. Government sources told Kathimerini newspaper that there is "a strong political will of the two parties to protect the principal place of residence," which does not exclude the introduction of the relevant legislative change. The current transitional regime, ending at the end of the year, protects those uninformed borrowers who meet certain criteria and have submitted a claim to the banks, their number being less than 5,000.

A senior source from the Ministry of Justice said that, regarding the auctioning of real estate because of tax obligations, the government does not agree with the Troika’s request for the property to be sold at 1/3 of its nominal value. It will insist on selling property 2/3 of the nominal value. The same source confirmed that "an order of the Prime Minister for the protection of weak borrowers will be issued. According to the information, New Democracy has explained to the competent ministers that the government will not leave the vulnerable social groups unprotected, the attitude of PASOK being similar.

At a meeting Minister of Finance Gikas Hardouvelis and the Deputy Minister of Administrative Reform discussed the pending issues between the Ministry of Administrative Reform and the Troika, including the structural reforms in the public sector, the new payroll table in the public sector, the activities under the memorandum, the new law on the appointments in the public sector.

Today Hardouvelis will continue the preparatory meetings, concerning the meeting with the Troika, with the other ministers, who will travel to Paris, namely Minister of Employment Ioannis Vroutsis and Minister of Development Nikos Dendias.

According to schedule, the Greek mission will travel to Paris on Tuesday, 2 September. The first meeting with the heads of the Troika will take place the same day too. It will involve Gikas Hardouvelis and the economic staff, as it will discuss such topics as the new budget, meeting the deficit for 2015, tax issues and especially the real estate tax, the judicial decisions that put at risk the implementation of the budget. It is expected that the Greek side will raise the issue of tax exemption too.

On Wednesday, 3 September, the negotiations will continue, involving the Ministers of Employment, Development, Justice and of the Administrative Reform who will discuss topics such as insurance, cuts, the new payroll table in the public sector, the loans in the red. On Thursday morning there will be another meeting to summarize the previous meetings and to prepare a monitoring plan that will come into force in mid-September.

It is worth noting that, according to the information, the meetings will take place at the offices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Poul Thomsen

Meanwhile, it has become clear that Poul Thomsen will not participate in the Paris meeting, where the International Monetary Fund will send a "small mission" led by new representative in the Troika Rishi Goyal, despite Thomsen’s desire to participate. This was explained in yesterday's press statement of the International Monetary Fund, which stresses that the meeting is only a "prologue" to the meeting in Athens at the end of September.

According to the announcement Thomsen will not participate in the meeting because of his workload as the new Director of the European Department of the International Monetary Fund, but will remain "closely connected with the Greek programme."

According to information, it is uncertain whether Thomsen will participate in the meeting in Athens to complete the negotiations.