Evangelos Venizelos

Troika envoys have sent Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis (photo) a list of 19 tough reforms they want authorities to carry out for their latest review to be completed in time for a Eurogroup summit due on December 8, Kathimerini understands. The list was addressed to the finance minister last Friday.

Despite the huge challenges ahead, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos, agreed on Monday that the government will remain focused on completing the current round of negotiations with the troika and securing an agreement for a “post-memorandum” era next year.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will visit Athens in December to hold talks with Greek Premier Antonis Samaras, it was announced on Monday.

The outcome of Thursday's Eurogroup summit, at which eurozone finance ministers agreed to consider a precautionary credit line for Greece next year, corresponded to the government's aim to forge a new relationship with the country's international creditors, PASOK leader and deputy premier Evangelos Venizelos said on Friday.

Greece's coalition leaders are likely to have to take a decision in the next few days on how the country will reach the target of dismissing another 5,500 employees from the public sector by the end of the year.

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis was named the Greek Foreign Ministry’s new Ambassador-at-Large, on Wednesday.

Deputy Greek Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos will pay a visit to Turkey in late November amid Cyprus talks that have stalled over a dispute over the island’s natural resources.

United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide will visit Athens on Wednesday for a series of meetings with Greek officials ahead of his visit to Cyprus Thursday.

Eide will hold talks with Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos at 4 p.m. after meeting with the ministry's secretary general Anastasios Mitsialis.

The government on Friday condemned the desecration of the Holocaust memorial in Athens after it was vandalized with graffiti signed by the far-right group “Unaligned Meander Nationalists.”

In a statement, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos pledged that the authorities will do everything in their power to arrest the perpetrators.

The two parties comprising the coalition government, conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, are once again faced with a number of crucial decisions.

Changes in the pay structure of public servants as well as the laws governing the operations of trade unions are reforms that PASOK obviously can and should support.