Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is living out of a suitcase with talks in Brussels on an interim stop after Paris and Rome ahead of his visit to madrid on Friday. Like a traveling salesman for the leftist government’s issues, he hopes to reach an agreement with EU partners haggling with issues that he refused to put on the table up to a week ago, including reforms, VAT, privatizations and labor reforms. “Red lines” are fading to “pink” in the “laundry of negotiation” for Greece.

Varoufakis is meeting with the delegation of government’s economic representative George Chouliarakis involved in talks with the Brussels Group to evaluate negotiations. Meanwhile, there is also action with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis and Euclid Tsakalotos – all working on different fronts to ensure a positive outcome for Greece.

The following issues are on the table:

– Changes to pensions: The PM gave the “green light” for reforms in a previously “no go” area in his telephone conversation with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Specifically, they “discussed the importance of reforms to modernize the pension system so that it is fair, fiscally sustainable and effective in averting old-age poverty,” the joint statement read. International creditors are reading between the lines to what they want to see – pension cuts and an increase to the pension age to 65 years. 

– Taxation: The promise of increased joint VAT at 16-18% allows international creditors to stop their insistence on the abolition of the 30% VAT amelioration on Greek islands. Measures to secure tax collection are also on the table, such as mandatory payment of goods and services with credit cards to ensure that VAT is paid regardless of how much they are increased. Furthermore, the controversial joint property tax (ENFIA) that the government had planned to abolish is being extended.

– Labor:  Government and institutions are discussing a return to collective bargaining negotiations, however, these will be in a more “flexible” form than the regime that existed in the past.

– Privatizations: The accleration of privatizations is a given, now that the government is linking cash yielded from these with the reinforcement of social security funds (so that they could be “fiscally viable”). Regional airports are at the top of the privatization list, followed by debt-laden Greek Rail (OSE), the Port of Piraeus (OLP), etc.