Discussions in Paris were difficult, but steps have been taken towards the conclusion of the final negotiation, Government Vice-President and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said in statements after his meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras yesterday (27.11). He was referring to negotiations with the troika in Paris in preparation of a Eurogroup summit on December 8.

Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis said yesterday (27.11) that there was "significant progress" in negotiations with the troika in Paris in preparation of a Eurogroup summit on December 8. During a speech on the 2015 budget in Parliament’s Economics Commission, the minister said that "in a negotiation you cannot exactly say where you are and where the others stand, you don’t want to show your strategy.

The only thing I can say is that we are involved in a difficult negotiation. The fact that we sat down until four-and-a-half in the morning in Paris is evidence of this."

Hardouvelis reassured that the country would not roll back to uncertainty. He said that the government is working hard in negotiations with lenders to avoid this uncertainty. There is significant progress in negotiations, there is agreement on a series of issues and "we continue negotiations with fully documented arguments and I believe we will achieve a future will fewer burdens and more prospects for everyone."

In related news, Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said that fiscal targets set by the Greek government were achieved for the third consecutive year with an additional significant primary surplus for the third time, while the country entered a period of positive economic growth, said today during a debate in a Parliament committee on the 2015 budget. Referring to the “tough and complex” negotiations with the country’s creditors, Staikouras noted that “we have to approach the country’s basic political issues, and of course the 2015 budget issue, with realism, a spirit of unity and national cohesion, away from dangerous acrobatics.”