In a last ditch effort to reach a deal with its creditors the Greek government tabled an alternative proposal to the institutions to avoid accepting the €3.6bln ‘preventive package’. Despite attempts to agree on a legal formula to implement the preventive measures, talks with the Quartet broke off Tuesday twice, with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos exiting the hotel in Athens the second time and telling reporters that they had discussed the mechanism of implementing the €3.6bln extra measures, adding that the two sides would resume the negotiations after deliberations. It is reported that Thursday’s Eurogroup meeting will finally not take place. Tsakalotos said that the Greek side rejected the implementation of the €3.6bln preventive measures. According to sources, the Greek proposal provided that in the event of fiscal divergence specific measures would be implemented by the Greek government. To convince the creditors that the Greek government is committed to this proposal they included a provision that would see a penalty imposed on the Finance Minister if he did not implement the necessary extra measures to over the divergence from the fiscal targets. The same government sources claimed that the Greek side maintained its ‘red lines’, including safeguarding the main residence of people from foreclosure, the pension levels, the tax free threshold, and the lower income earners, and the tax and pension reforms. The sources continue by saying that the EU part of the Quartet wants four set parameters for the corrective fiscal mechanism to: a). kick in automatically; b). be reliable; c). objective; d). be institutionalised. Greece, according to the same source agreed to all four demands laid down by the EU.