Eurogroup

Pharmacists in Attica will end their strike on Tuesday despite measures liberalizing their sector passing through Parliament on Sunday night.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Premier Evengelos Venizelos are due to hold a second meeting on Monday to discuss the fallout from the passing of the multi-bill through Parliament on Sunday night and preparations for the Eurogroup and ECOFIN meetings in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos slammed his predecessor George Papandreou for failing to support both articles of the omnibus bill in a late vote on Sunday but stopped short of ousting the former prime minister from the party, a move that would have put the coalition’s majority at risk.

 Trial bond issue will likely come after the European elections, while needs are covered up to May 2015

By Sotiris Nikas

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to pay an official visit to Greece before Easter (April 20), sources have told Kathimerini.

A date for the trip has not yet been set but Merkel is expected to show her support for Greece’s adjustment efforts in the wake of its next bailout tranche being approved at an informal Eurogroup in Athens on April 1.

After reaching an agreement with the troika on Tuesday, the Greek government now has to prepare legislation for the reforms it agreed with its lenders in the hope that the disbursement of at least 10 billion euros in loans will be approved at an informal Eurogroup meeting due to take place in Athens on April 1.

 Lenders want public sector pay to drop and no automatic minimum wage rises A man reads the headlines of newspapers hanging from the awning of a kiosk in central Athens on Friday.

The troika has asked Greece to lower wages for new civil servants and to remove automatic pay rises for Greeks earning the minimum wage in the private sector, Kathimerini understands.

The troika faced an “immense challenge” in dealing with the euro crisis but the adjustment programs it helped implement in Greece and other countries lacked transparency and were not fully adapted to those states, according to a European Parliament committee, which recommended on Tuesday the International Monetary Fund’s involvement in future bailouts be “optional.”

Greece and the Eurogroup agreed on Friday a deal to extend the country?s loan agreement for another four months, pending on lenders approving reform proposals due to be submitted by the Greek side on Monday.