Withdrawal from the European Union

Independent Greeks (ANEL) MP Nikos Nikolopoulos announced his rejection of eight of the prior actions. He announced that he would vote to the measures in principle because he feels bound by the recent popular mandate.

European Union nations agreed on Oct. 8 to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers as they took a harder line toward tackling the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.

Prime Minister David Cameron said his renegotiation of Britain's ties with the European Union was "bloody hard work" and refused to rule out campaigning for a British exit in a referendum if other EU leaders failed to grant him the concessions he wants. 

Three more opinion polls by … well-known polling companies were released on Thursday, with the first (by Metron Analysis) giving conservative New Democracy a razor-slim 0.3 percentage point lead over leftist SYRIZA, while another (by Alco) had the exact same difference, but with SYRIZA ahead – 25.3 to 25 percent for ND.

The third opinion poll (Pulse) shows a tie, at 28 percent.

The Standard & Poor’s agency on Friday reaffirmed Greece’s sovereign rating at CCC+ with a stable outlook. S&P also predicted that the country’s economy will shrink by 3 percent in 2015.

German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAZ) reports that a deal between Greece and the Quartet for the new 86bln Euro bailout plan is possible by next Friday, August 14. The reports notes on the ‘excellent cooperation’ between the creditors and the Greek negotiating team during talks.

The new survey Eurobarometer by the European Commission, released on Wednesday, suggests that people in Serbia are the most sceptical about EU membership in the Balkans.

About 42 per cent of the people surveyed in Serbia believe that the country's membership of the EU would a good thing while 22 per cent consider it would be negative for the country.

The Greek government leaked a non-paper late Wednesday to the media upon the completion of economic policy council cabinet meeting saying an agreement with the creditors before August 20 was ‘absolutely feasible’. Some government officials are more optimistic saying a deal could be reached as soon as the upcoming weekend.

Time is running out for Greece to secure a bailout worth up to 86 billion euros over three years.. Bloomberg reports that an e-mail from the Greek Finance Ministry states that talks will start on Tuesday due to technical reasons. Delays in the talks could risk finding a solution for Greece’s funding by the August 20 deadline.

The German Bundestag approved on Friday the terms of the third bailout agreement, which Greece and the leaders of the eurozone had negotiated on Monday.

Germany's lower house of parliament approved the reopening of financial negotiations with Greece with 439 MPs voting in favour, 119 voting against, while 40 abstained, Deutsche Welle reports.