Euclid Tsakalotos

After the claim to negotiating the prevention of pension cuts, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos stated on Wednesday in Parliament that the government will also seek to avert the reduction of the tax-free ceiling from January 2020, in an effort to cancel the entire agreement with its creditors voted by the House just a year ago.

Alexis Tsipras started out like a rock star in the eyes of the European and American left. He was seen as being at the vanguard in the so-called battle against austerity.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos sparked outrage on Friday after saying that the long-term viability of the social security system will not be burdened by a suspension of planned pension cuts as older pensioners will die soon.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday issued a flat denial to the government's request to cancel the implementation of the planned pension cut in January 2019, while Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos appeared reserved about Berlin's attitude as he responded to investors' questions in London a day after meeting his German counterpart.

The government remains a long way from getting the green light to cancel the implementation planned pension cuts in January, as an informal meeting in Germany indicated on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Wednesday he hoped "reason will prevail" in talks with Greece's lenders and they will agree that pensions do not need to be cut further in 2019.

"The pension cuts are not a structural measure. It doesn't affect the viability of the pension system," he was quoted as saying in an interview with news website newport.gr.

Greece plans to further loosen capital controls soon and is on track to lift all restrictions imposed three years ago, its finance minister said on Saturday.

"We will have new easing (of capital controls) very soon," Euclid Tsakalotos was quoted as saying in an interview with Naftemporiki newspaper, without specifying when.

A decision on whether or not Greece will be obliged to implement fresh pension cuts in January will not be taken until a summit of eurozone finance ministers in November, it emerged yesterday as representatives of Greece's creditors met with government officials in Athens.

The issue of the pension cuts scheduled for January will dominate Wednesday's meeting between the creditors' mission chiefs and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in Athens, with senior officials stressing that the eurozone expects Athens to implement the fiscal commitments and the reforms it has pledged.

The union of public university professors, POSDEP, will be on strike on Monday and Tuesday, the first two days of the September exam period, in what it says is a warning of more possible action to come if professors' demands are not addressed.