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During yesterday's meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister Lucas Papademos spoke about the "titanic efforts" made by the country to complete all required actions before the taking of the final decision to grant financial assistance. In this connection a new meeting of the Council of Ministers is expected to take place on Wednesday, 28^th February.

As "preliminary required actions" Papademos pointed out those that are directly related to the new economic programme and final approval of the financial assistance to the country, as well as the actions that are related to the PSI procedure which started yesterday. At its meeting, the Council of Ministers gave a green light to the procedure for the exchange of Greek bonds.

The Prime Minister stated that the legislative activity has been progressing very satisfactorily and that it has completed many of the required measures. He stressed however that there are still plenty of outstanding issues within the competence of the Ministry of Labour and Healthcare, that must be prepared in order for him and the Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos to be able to present them to the European partners at the summit and at the meeting of Εurogroup.

Papademos stressed that there are a significant number of ministerial decisions which must be finally completed and published within the coming days, because they are part of the preliminary steps required.

Subsequently, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos informed the cabinet members of the changes that affect the Greek statistical office, and in particular of the memorandum with the new operation regulations, which refers to all European Union countries.