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The representatives of Greece's lenders, formerly known as the "supervisory Troika" will return to Athens next week by a new name, "the institutions".

According to the Greek media, the delegation will involve 20 experts and technocrats instead of 45, as was the wish of "the institutions".

In addition to the name, the method of operation of the new old "Troika" will change as well. Its representatives will not meet with the Greek ministers but only with a 9-member Greek commission with which they will discuss the technical details of the applied policies. They will not visit all ministries, as they did a few months ago, but only those of them that are involved in the negotiations between Athens and its lenders.

According to well-informed sources and media, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had a teleconference call with representatives of "the institutions" on Tuesday. This, however, did not prevent him from firmly denying this information via a message on the website of the department.

The return of the supervisory Troika in camouflage has provoked many critical comments from the opposition in traditional media and on social networks. Indicative is the comment of New Democracy MEP George Kirtsos, "They have ‘cancelled’ the Troika but they are negotiating with its leaders and expect the technical teams in Athens. The mockery is not over yet."

Athens is anticipating the decisions of the meeting of the European Central Bank leadership, which is held today in the Cypriot capital Nicosia. The government hopes that it will be able to secure funding from the European Central Bank during the negotiations with the lenders.

The results of the meeting which will discuss the refinancing of the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), from which Greece is currently obtaining liquidity since the European Central Bank has ceased to accept as collateral Greek government bonds, are expected later today.

Meanwhile, the negotiations between Athens and the lenders are again at back at the starting point since the lenders have rejected the package of 6 reforms that Yanis Varoufakis has sent in order for them to grant to Greece part of the last tranche of the bailout or 1.5 billion euro that Athens must pay to the International Monetary Fund in March.

Greek media correspondents in Brussels have denied this information, referring to sources from the euro zone, according to whom last night's meeting of the Euro Working Group did not raise at all the question of accepting or rejecting this reform package.

In Greece itself, nobody but the government is aware of what exactly the proposed reforms include or what will happen if the lenders refuse to grant that amount.

In last night's speech to members of the Greek-French Chamber of Commerce the Greek Finance Minister said that Greece has a "plan B", without specifying what it was. Varoufakis added that "when you are going to the front, you are not talking about a loss." According to him, government revenues in February were higher than claimed in the media.

In this situation, it is worth noting that the Greek government continues to insist that it is not in talks with the lenders. "Currently, there is neither an arrival nor a plan for the coming of the Troika or its technical teams to Athens," said government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis on Mega TV. The subsequent communication from the Ministry of Finance was in the same spirit.