Yiannis Dragasakis

Farmers from Nikaia in northern Greece head south on Saturday to set up a roadblock at the tunnels on the national highway connecting Athens and Thessaloniki in Tempi as they escalated their protest action.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis warned on Wednesday in Parliament of the possibility that local banks may require a fresh capital injection that the Greek taxpayers could once again have to cover.

In doing so, he started to prepare citizens for the consequences of the upcoming plans for tackling nonperforming loans.

Bank stocks recovered from their decline on Friday morning to buoy the benchmark and the blue chip index higher by the end the session. Information on further action by banks to reduce their bad loans helped stocks offset losses triggered by Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis's statements, who said local lenders may need more capital injections in the future.

The European Commission's vice president for jobs, growth, investment and competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen, is expected in Athens for a two-day visit on Tuesday, where he will meet with government officials and also answer questions from the public.

European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici is due in Athens on Wednesday where he will meet with government ministers and the prime minister.

Moscovici will first see President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and then meet with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at Maximos Mansion between 14:45 and 15:30. Their meeting will be followed by brief statements to the press.

The Greek Parliament's Institutions and Transparency Committee has endorsed the appointment of Vassiliki Thanou, former chief of the Supreme Court, as head of country's independent Competition Commission.

Her appointment was backed by MPs from SYRIZA, Independent Greeks (ANEL), the Union of Centrists and Golden Dawn.

The government is considering an extension to the protected status of overindebted borrowers' main residences (as provided through the so-called Katseli law) until a permanent protection framework is agreed with the country's creditors.

An Economy Ministry bill seen by Kathimerini will extend the national section of the Public Investments Program (PIP) from one to five years and place it under public scrutiny.

The bill, which will go to Parliament next year, will be announced in the coming days by Economy Minister Yiannis Dragasakis during his speech in Parliament at the debate on the 2019 budget.

While the government appears to be considering extending the protection of debtors' main residence in some form, this is not likely to be in the context of existing legislation which expires at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, talks with creditors on the possibility of a fresh repayment plan for up to 120 installments have frozen.

A package that arrived by mail at the Greek Foreign Ministry on Friday and was deemed suspicious contained an electronic blood pressure monitor, according to police sources cited by state-run news agency ANA-MPA.

The parcel raised the alarm at the ministry which was evacuated by police earlier in the day.