Euro Working on Greece at 4 p.m. on Wednesday

Technical teams resumed their efforts in Athens on Tuesday, ahead of the Euro Working Group discussion set to begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday and continue on Thursday. The negotiations at the meeting are based on a revised set of reforms that Greece sent to its international creditors last week.

The Brussels meeting is set to lay the groundwork for the next Eurogroup summit scheduled in Riga, Latvia, on April 24. It is hoped that an agreement would lead to the release of a portion of the 7.2-billion-euro loan tranche benchmarked for Greece as the state coffers are at dangerously low levels.

Sources in Brussels have left open the possibility for progress while the Finance Ministry is examining reforms aimed at yielding an additional 900 mln euros for Greece. Secretary of fiscal policy Nikos Theoharakis will represent Greece at the meeting.

Key issues discussed between technical groups in Athens on Tuesday, prior to the meeting on Wednesday, concerned Greece’s fiscal condition, the need for more fiscal measures and the social security sector.

In Washington

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was both offered support and pushed to make reforms so that a Grexitend can be avoided. He offered a series of suggestions in thematic units to work through.Seeing that his policy of “creative vagueness” was not enough he is now moving onto a bartering system of “give and take”.