Subject: Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-04-27 From: "HR-Net News Distribution Manager" CONTENTS [01] Government's economic team briefs Tsipras on review talks --------------------------------------------------------------------------- [01] Government's economic team briefs Tsipras on review talks The government's economic team briefed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday evening the ongoing negotiations with Greece's creditors on the second program review Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Alternate Finance Minister George Chouliarakis and Labour Minister Efi Achtsioglou presented the outcome of today's meetings with the representatives of the institutions and the Greek side's observations concerning the open issues. Earlier, a government official said the seven or eight major open issues in the talks between the Greek government and the institutions have been resolved and "only sundry issues remain." Even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was insisting on many points that were not to the government's liking, the source added, "I do not have the impression that the Fund has come to the negotiations in order to delay and I do not think these issues can lead to not concluding the agreement." During a 1.5-hour meeting on Thursday, the two sides discussed issues relating to privatisations, fiscal policy and labour law. According to the government official, a discussion on the four draft documents (the MoU with the European institutions, the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) with the IMF and two corresponding technical agreements) is to be held on Friday afternoon. Both the Greek side and the institutions have given instructions that these documents should first be 'cleared' at a staff level so only the basic issues are discussed at a senior level, so that there can be topic discussions on the four documents. The aim is to have completed the entire process by next Sunday, the official said.