Greek government aims to transfer the negotiation talks with the lenders to Washington, since it believes that the discussion to take place in Athens will not lead to any kind of agreement. Even though Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos aims to reach an agreement and conclude the program review by April 22, it is obvious that both the dates and the figures show that additional measures or a deal to drastically reduce the debt obligations will be needed.

It seems that the government is seeking to achieve an agreement of budget targets haircut , without which it would be forced to continue an endless negotiation with the lenders, or, if program review should be concluded first, to agree to sign salaries and pension cuts, apart from tax and contribution hikes to which it had already agreed.

Up to now, the representatives of the institutions do not have the mandate to get a ‘discount’ on the measures they are requesting. Therefore, Mr. Tsakalotos said that discussion will take place in Washington “in order to achieve a final agreement on the whole package, meaning government’s obligations under the agreement signed in the summer, but also regarding the debt. This is the goal, ” he told parliament.

In other words, he wants to get Europeans’ reassurance on Greek debt relief, so as IMF could say ‘yes’ to fewer measures.