According to a statement by the office of Prime Minister, negotiations with the troika have been concluded. “We did everything we could. We exhausted all the limits of pressure and time. We achieved significant improvements even in the final hour,” Samaras said.

“What would happen if the deal isn’t passed and the country is led to chaos?” he said in the statement. “Such dangers must be avoided. That is the responsibility of each party and every MP individually,” he added.

The draft budget for 2013, which provides for measures of EUR 9.2 billion, a GDP contraction of 4.5% and a primary surplus of 0.5%, is tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras today. The budget will have to get the House’s vote by November 11, Kathimerini writes. Along with the budget, the government will submit the updated midterm program as a separate chapter with a report about the measures that will have to be taken by 2016.

Meanwhile, today the Eurogroup of Eurozone finance ministers will also be holding a teleconference to decide on the disbursement of the EUR 31.5 billion tranche of bailout funding for Greece as the Euro Working Group is on its third day of talks in Brussels over Greece.

After a meeting between Employment Minister Yannis Vroutsis and Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis yesterday ended inconclusively, Kouvelis’ party reaffirmed its stance opposite to the changes to labour laws; in particular, it rejected the abolition of the marriage bonus for employees and ending the automatic extension of collective wage agreements.

The secretary of the Democratic Left’s central committee, Spyros Lykoudis, said that unless the problem is resolved, there remains the possibility that the party will pull out of government. “We can honestly say that we want consistency in the government,” he said.

FinMin stressed that negotiations with the troika were hard and the package of measures was difficult, ANA writes. “We work day and night hoping to reach the necessary decision in October which will allow us to look at the future with optimism, leaving behind past mistakes,” Stournaras said, adding that there was finally light at the end of tunnel.

According to FinMin, the budget this year will close within the limits accepted by the Troika despite the two elections. He estimated that because of the recession the primary deficit will rise to 1.5% of GDP in 2012, compared to the previous estimate of 1%.

He made specific reference to the need to accelerate privatizations, anti-fraud policy and generally the speeding-up of reforms.

Leaving a meeting with the Prime, Stournaras yesterday, Stournaras predicted that spending cuts and other measures to reduce the budget deficit by more than EUR 11.5 billion will probably be finalised on Sunday. “I hope, by Sunday. We don’t have much time, however,” he said, in reply to questions. Speaking off camera, he admitted that there was a gap between the government’s positions and those of the troika but indicated that this gap “was closing”.

“Many of these cutbacks are difficult, painful,” Samaras said. “But they are also inevitable. For without them the country would return to zero credibility and effectively leave the euro. Which would… destroy the country.”

Talking about his recent trips to Berlin and Paris, Samaras said “first of all we changed the climate in Europe which was the first condition to remain in the euro. If we want to have a recovery we must stick to the euro and also bring liquidity to our economy. We regained some of our credibility and told the Europe leadership that we need recovery. We asked Europe to stop the harsh statements against our country,” the PM said, protothema.gr writes.

A draft of the austerity package list was given yesterday to coalition leaders, who will meet again, before next week’s visit by the EC-ECB-IMF troika.

According to Kathimerini.gr, austerity cuts being proposed are even harsher than expected. These include the abolition of the traditional holiday payments (at Easter, Christmas and summer) for all pensioners, not just former civil servants (savings EUR 2.5 billion). It also emerged that the ax will likely fall on all pensions above EUR 800, with cuts starting at 2% and reaching 20% for the highest levels. The government hopes to raise EUR 4.5 billion through pension cuts alone.

The proposed package also foresees fresh cuts to healthcare (EUR 1.3 billion), some EUR 500 million of cutbacks in defense and EUR 750 million in cutbacks to local authority subsidies.

Cuts to special payrolls of certain categories of civil servants such as judicial and military staff as well as priests will reach 12%, according to the proposal, which aims to raise EUR 800 million in this area. It is likely that police officers and other members of security forces with dangerous jobs, will be excluded from this measure.

As for civil servants, the likely scenario involves between 35,000 and 40,000 employees leaving the public sector by 2014, either through early retirement or for failing to pass an evaluation. Another 110,000 are to leave the service by 2015 either through retirement or the termination of their contracts, Kathimerini.gr writes.

According to protothema.gr, disagreement remains within the coalition as regards cuts of pension bonuses, main pensions and special payrolls, as well as disability benefits, all discussed during Wednesday’s night meeting between the leaders of the three ruling parties.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras will meet the heads of the troika on Sunday (Sep. 9), to present the new austerity package, a finance ministry official said yesterday.

Troika officials are to arrive on September 5 and travel to Nicosia on September 13 ahead of a Eurogroup summit there on September 14.

The EU must take action to reduce public spending and boost economic growth at the same time, say 47 % of respondents. As to preferences, 25% say priority must go to measures to stimulate the economy, while 23% say it must go to those that reduce public spending.

Over half (55%) would feel better protected by measures coordinated with other EU Member States, but 38% (up three percentage points compared to the previous Eurobarometer in September 2011) would prefer their countries to go it alone. Within the euro zone, 61% favoured coordination, compared to only 43% outside it.

Although they favour solidarity, most Europeans say financial help for Member States in economic or financial difficulty must be made conditional upon compliance with common rules (80%), such as jointly-defined rules on deficits. They also say that penalties should be imposed when these rules are broken (72%).

Most Europeans (66%) feel that pooling part of the public debt would benefit only those Member States that are in dire straits, but 64% (up 3 percentage points), feel that it should be done in the name of solidarity nevertheless.

Most (66% – up five points) now also favour a financial transaction tax. However, there is a 20 point difference between those within the euro zone (73% in favour) and those outside it (53%). The strongest support for such a tax is found in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

“The results show that the European Parliament has been acting in the same spirit as that of the majority of the population in the laws and resolutions it has adopted since the beginning of the economic crisis. This proves we are on the right track and should be involved in all such decisions taken at EU level” said EP Vice-President co-Othmar Karas (EPP, AT), who shares responsibility for communication.

Vice-president and rapporteur on the financial transaction tax Anni Podimata (S&D, EL), was delighted to see “that an EU levy on financial transactions to put a brake on excessive practices is gaining real traction among all Europeans.” The European Parliament will vote Wednesday to give its opinion on the introduction of such a tax.

The “Crisis and the economic governance in Europe” is the fifth such survey, done by TNS opinion between 10 and 25 March 2012. It included face-to-face interviews with 26,593 Europeans aged 15 and over.