The members of the "institutions", the mechanisms built to negotiate and verify the progress of the measures stemming from the 3rd bailout deal between the Greek government and its international lenders are expected in Athens by the end of the week. The main items in the agenda include the crucial issues of the national insurance scheme and taxation
The government and the lenders are investigating ways to achieve 1% of the GNP on savings in the pensions, 1% from changes in the taxation and a further 1% from other measures.
Those other measures include a cut in military spending. The most thorny issues is the size of the cuts in the pensions as well as the rise in the benefit costs.
The two negotiating sides seem to have agreed in a national pension of €384 after 20 years of insured work.
In order to reduce the fiscal deficit, the changes in taxation include banking actions, fuel, real estate, mobile phones, cable TV and used cars.
The lenders do not agree to further taxation on banking moves as they fear that this will lead to further difficulties towards the return of deposits to the banks.
The two sides seem to agree that there is room for further taxation on fuel due to the low prices of crude oil.
The Greek government has tried to convey that the climate between the lenders and Greece is one of hard negotiations yet a final deal is close. On the other hand sources close to the negotiations speak of a possible dead end.
The truth is that the Greek economy is constantly hitting new lows and it would be hard to understand how any kind of further cuts are going to help it.