Louka Katseli

Dealing with the issue of price inflation and the prospects of the Greek economy are the focus of the “Alexis Tsipras Institute” event currently taking place at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.

The activation of the platform for the protection of primary residences will mean that all the debtors who had applied to go under the shield of the so-called Katseli law without fulfilling the required criteria will henceforth be on their own.

Greece's creditors, and the European Central Bank (ECB) in particular, are determined to force Athens to improve the new framework for protecting primary residences from foreclosure so that its does not further exacerbate an already weak payment culture or reward tax dodgers, sources save indicated.

Representative of Greece's four systemic banks - Alpha, Eurobank, Piraeus, and National Bank of Greece - are holding their second meeting in a week this evening with the government's economic team at the PM's office.

The focus of the meeting will be a new law establishing the framework for the protection of debtors' primary homes from foreclosure.

One out of four mortgage debtors are under the protection of the Katseli law, according to the official data on pending applications at Greek courts that Kathimerini has seen.

The government is facing a difficult task in trying to overcome the resistance of banks on two key issues that would accelerate the reduction of nonperforming loans, which currently stand at some 80 billion euros.

The Katseli law, the minimum wage and privatizations will be the three main stumbling blocks in the talks between the government and its creditors that start on Monday in Athens in the context of the second post-program assessment.

The government and the country's systemic banks agreed on Friday to extend a legislation protecting primary residencies from auctions by two months, following a meeting of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA) at Maximos Mansion.

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.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said on Friday that although the protection of debtors' main residences will be abolished in January 2019 when the Katseli law ceases to apply, the government is seeking ways to ensure that debtors in need of protection are not left without a safety net and is aiming to present a solution soon.