Troika meets finmin, development minister; new meeting at 5:00 p.m.

Commenting on the results of the talks, the Greek side estimated that an agreement on the end of a ban on auctions of foreclosed properties, which expires on December 31, will be reached by mid-December.

A senior development ministry official reported an “initial conjunction of views” and said there was neither a climate of tension nor a sense of things

“We discussed various measures that have either been taken or will be taken in order to speed up the process. The discussion will continue on a technical level next week,” he said.

Since the discussion centred on the auctions ban, a number of cabinet ministers whose ministries are involved in various capacities were present at the meeting, in addition to Stournaras and Hatzidakis. They included Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou and Deputy Development Minister Thanassis Skordas, as well as the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece Yiannis Papadakis.

According to development ministry officials, the Greek side insists that those who are really poor must be protected from losing their homes through auctions – through defining “acceptable living standards” – and also wants protection for it calls “cooperative” debtors, as well as the activation of the institution of arbitration. The officials appeared reasonably confident that a “common denominator” will be found on these issues with the chiefs of the troika mission.

Conversely, troika officials are adamant on the issue of business property leases and insists that these be fully deregulated, for both old and new lease-holders.

Source: AMNA