Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis is attending his second Eurogroup meeting in Brussels today. The Eurogroup is scheduled to discuss, among other things, the progress of the Greek economic program. The go-ahead for the release of the 1 billion euro sub-tranche of economic aid to Greece is seen as a formality following Friday’s approval by the Euroworking Group.

Mr. Hardouvelis will seek to convince his European counterparts to loosen fiscal policy in the Eurozone, a view that is backed by the Italian government that took over the EU presidency from Greece this month.

Deputy Director of the IMF’s European Department, Poul Thomsen, and economist for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Declan Costello, are expected to talk at the meeting. They will continue to monitor the release of the next 1 billion euro tranche and 1.8 billion euros from Greek bonds from the European Central Bank.

On his return to Athens on Wednesday, Mr. Hardouvelis will make his first public intervention into the Greek economy. Hints of what’s in store were given over the past weeks with talks about tax benefits and clamping down on tax evasion. On the same day, Mr. Hardouvelis will speak at the Economist’s conference about economic recovery that will include the participation of Mr. Thomsen and Mr. Costello. On Thursday, Mr. Hardouvelis is to meet with Troika representatives in Athens for a new round of negotiations.