Greek government spokesperson Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said the measures and countermeasures agreed at Monday’s EuroGroup meeting will take effect from January 1, 2019. The spokesperson called on Germany to “follow a path of realism” during the regular press briefing. “For every euro of measures there will also be a counter-measure of relief that will be voted in”, Mr. Tzanakopoulos. He stressed that Monday’s EuroGroup laid down the basic principles that will govern the technical agreement, while responding to a question on whether the government expected the opposition parties to back the deal in parliament he said that given the IMF wanted austerity measures worth 4.5 billion euros the agreement was a positive outcome and “we expect the parties to vote for it.” He went on to say that the deal was achieved because Greece, the European institutions and the IMF reached a compromise for the period after 2018. “It is time for Germany to follow a path of realism and for Berlin to back down from its demand of a 3.5% surplus for 10 years”, he underlined. However, the spokesperson denied reports that the government would legislate cuts pensions and the tax free threshold. Mr. Tzanakopoulos left the prospect of the government adopting more measures if the fiscal targets were not met.