The first meeting of the so-called Brussels Group was extremely long. The meeting between the “Institutions” (formerly “troika”) and the Greek government began at 3 p.m., and ended at 11 p.m. (EET).

On the part of the Greek side, the head of the negotiation team was Secretary General of Fiscal Policy Nikos Theoharakis, accompanied by the PM’s advisor on finance, Elena Panariti.

According to government sources, this first meeting of the Brussels Group agreed to the process to be followed herein as far as negotiations are concerned.

The Brussels Group will discuss technical issues of reform policies agreed upon in the Eurogroup, and will be able to assign data-collection teams who will visit Greece and collect the data they require.

At the same time, the technical team which will gather macroeconomic and fiscal data will visit Athens on Thursday, while a team which will collect financial data as well as reform data will visit on Monday.

Government sources stressed that “negotiations will continue with a basis on the agreement of Feb. 20 to implement reforms to kickstart the economy and alleviate pressure on society”.