The Greek government and its international creditors (EC, ECB, IMF, ESM) are continuing to bargain on open issues while it remains unclear if loose ends  will be tied up by the Euro Working Group meeting on Friday evening. It is hoped that the teleconference call will be enough to convince EU finance ministers to unlock a 2-bln-euro tranche benchmarked for Greece at Monday’s Eurogroup.

The voting of an omnibus bill by Greek Parliament at dawn on Friday may not be enough to clinch the deal as open issues include foreclosures of primary residences, gambling taxes and the government’s decision to scrap plans for a 23% VAT hike for private schools, confirmed in an announcement on Thursday. As a result, the government needs to find equivalent measures to close fiscal gaps.

If the Eurogroup meeting deems that Greece has not kept its pledges, then the funds for Greece will be postponed until the start of December when Greece is to receive another 1 billion euros worth of bailout funds.

Sources revealed on Thursday that a teleconference meeting between Economy Minister George Stathakis and creditors showed that the two sides have yet to align views on what the protection limits for homeowners should be with the government initially hoping to save primary residences worth 200,000 euros from foreclosures before dropping to 180,000 euros and creditors stalwart in their demands that these levels should be at 120,000 euros.