A day of reckoning for the just over four-month Greek government appears near, with the latest sign coming on Friday with the urgent dispatch to Brussels on Saturday morning of Greek negotiators — a day after negotiations with creditors appeared momentarily moribund.

The Tsipras government suddenly appeared “re-energized” into trying to reach some sort of compromise with creditors after what can only be described as an ultimatum sent by institutional lenders on Friday.

An agreement to free-up 7.2 billion euros in left over cash in the second bailout package has been the elusive goal for Athens and creditors since late February. The latter want a cash-for-reforms deal; the former has not agreed with what it calls continuing austerity measures.

Just before the announcement of a return of the Greek delegation to talks was announced, Tsipras had a telephone conversation with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The latter has emerged recently as the primary interlocutor between the radical leftist government and the European creditors. The Greek delegation was described as technical experts.

Non-paper redux

As a “chaser” to the announced, sources out of the government house said the SYRIZA government was ready to table counter-proposals in order to compromise with creditors, saying this method was agreed to in a meeting between Tsipras, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Juncker days ago.
Bypassing the demand, primarily by the IMF, for pension reform, the same sources said a difference over a 2015 primary surplus target was a mere 0.25 percent of GDP.

In a later report by the state-run television, it was announced that a trio of top ministers — Dragasakis, Pappas and Tsakalotos — will be received on Saturday morning by Juncker himself. The ERT report cited EU sources.