Greece's coalition government met again yesterday to try and agree on the 13.5bn euros of austerity measures that must be agreed in order to comply with bailout agreement and receive the Troika's approval for the release of the next 31.5bn tranche of aid.

The Troika are representatives from the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank (ECB).

Yet once again, its members Prime Minister Antonis Samaris, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left head Fotis Kouvelis were unable to bridge the gaps.

Kouvelis made clear that he would not vote in favour of Troika demands that would "increase firings, unemployment and the recession" and commented that the international lenders seemed intent on destroying any remaining workers' rights.

Venizelos also expressed his discontent, considering it "unjustified and provocative that the issue of labour reforms should be brought up now," while insisting that such measures would not help Greece to reach its fiscal targets.

Samaras continues to have his hands tied and simply called on his coalition partners to join him in the "broadest possible unity".

Meanwhile, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Eurozone had granted Athens two more years (ie., until 2016) to bring its deficit down to 3%. The extension has long been discussed and Greek officials have insisted it's in the cards as all calculations on budget cuts are making that assumption.

However, ECB board member Jörg Asmussen didn't hesitate to point out that no decision on such an extension has been made. "So far there is no final agreement between the Troika and the Greek government. We are making progress in Athens, but we are not there," he stated on German public broadcaster ARD.

He also expressed concern over such a concession: "If we were to extend the fiscal targets by two years, it would imply the need for more financial assistance from the Eurozone member states."

JM

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