Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and teams of relevant ministries are in a series of meetings in order to compile the list of reforms required after the meeting in Brussels. Greece’s European partners have asked Tsipras to expedite procedures as time is running out for the Greek government which is facing a serious cash crunch. Things are even more pressing since the Greek premier has an important meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday. Merkel insisted in Brussels that Greece must present a comprehensive list of reforms in the next Eurogroup, and if the list is approved, only then Athens can receive further funding from creditors. Tsipras must have some proposals ready for the German Chancellor. The list of reforms will be the same in principle as the one presented in February by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. Certain points will be refined and all measures will have a “price tag” and an implementation time frame. The state budget, tax system reforms, reforms in insurance and labor laws, pensions and minimum wage will be the key points on the list. Sources from Brussels say that it is very likely that there will be an emergency Eurogroup on Friday, which means Greece must be ready by then, even though Tsipras has not given the exact date the list will be ready. On Wednesday the creditors’ representatives, the Brussels Group, will be in Athens to meet with the Greek technical teams and the next day there will be a meeting of the EuroWorking Group. On Friday, Tsipras gave a press conference saying that the recessionary measures of the previous government are history and the new measures will aim at growth with a primary surplus target of 1-1.5 percent. He promised a fair tax system where everyone will be paying taxes according to their revenues and announced that expected state revenues from tax evasion will reach 800 million euros in 2015. He also said that measures and reforms will be decided by the Greek government and not the lenders.
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