ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's government is racing to meet another deadline as it tries to finalize a new bailout agreement before a payment on bonds held by the European Central Bank comes due Aug. 20.
Greece and rescue lenders are still working out the format of forthcoming talks, the labor minister said Sunday, confirming a delay in the negotiations for a third international bailout.
Giorgos Katrougalos told private Skai television Sunday that pre-negotiation discussions were still ongoing.
"The way the negotiations will take place is still being discussed within the government," Katrougalos said.
Bailout negotiators from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund had been due to start arriving in Athens on Friday to start talks for the new rescue package worth an expected 85 billion euros. One euro equals about $1.10.
But late Saturday, a government official said talks at a "technical level" were now set to start Tuesday. The official asked not to be named because the negotiations were ongoing.
Katrougalos said Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and other Cabinet colleagues were likely to meet directly with the inspectors -- a move that had been previously ruled out by the country's left-wing government.
Lenders in Greece reopened with limited services last week, after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras capitulated to creditors' demands and agreed to implement actions required in exchange for a third bailout program.
After six months of capital flight, the government had been forced to impose capital controls and close its banks June 28 in order to safeguard scarce liquidity in its financial system.
While the government eased some of the restrictions on deposit withdrawals and capital controls for corporations Friday, Greek proposals for a lifting of limits on trading were rejected by the European Central Bank, according to an Athens Exchange spokesman. The Bank of Greece, the Hellenic Capital Market Commission and the finance ministry are negotiating the ground rules for the reopening of markets, with temporary safeguards in place to preserve liquidity in the banking system, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified by name, in line with policy.
A ministerial decree setting the ground rules for the reopening of the Athens Stock Exchange, multilateral trading facility and electronic secondary market for bonds is likely after consultations with the central bank conclude. An emergency ban on short selling, approved by the European Securities and Markets Authority, expires today.
The chairman of the National Bank of Greece, Louka Katseli, said in an interview with Agora newspaper that only a completion of an agreement for a new aid program will restore confidence in the banking system and allow for the lifting of capital controls.
Technical groups representing creditor institutions have arrived in Athens for negotiations, and the government said Saturday that the heads of the Greece mission from each of the institutions may arrive a few days later.
According to an international official directly involved in Greece's bailout program, the delay was due to two reasons: The Greek government was seeking to confine the movements of creditor institutions' staff in Athens, and creditors haven't reached a common position with Greece on whether additional actions will be required before the country is eligible for a new loan.
While the government and the European Commission have said Greece has fulfilled the conditions after two votes in Parliament in the past two weeks, some euro area member states are still pushing for additional measures, the official added, asking not to be identified as he isn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
While the two sides are now more or less in agreement on the formats and logistics of the meetings between the government and the institutions, the latest delay means that completing a full memorandum of understanding in the next two weeks, which would detail dozens of savings measures and structural economic overhauls, is unlikely, the official said, adding that a new short-term bridge loan may be needed to avert default on the European Central Bank payment in August.
Information for this article was contributed by Nikos Chrysoloras of Bloomberg News and by Derek Gatopoulos and Demetris Nellas of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/27/2015