Greece must exceed a primary surplus budget target of 3.5% of GDP in order to permit the application of countermeasures, stated President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem in a note to the Dutch Parliament
The same document — also revealed by CNN — says that counter measures, if implemented, after 2019, will cover the amount of the outperformance of budgetary measures.
The Greek government wants the activation measures and countermeasures to take place simultaneously as of January 1, 2019, based on the forecast of financial results for 2018 which is to take place in August 2018. In contrast, lenders want to activate the austerity measures by January 1, 2019 and the financial results of 2018 finalized in the first half of 2019; if Greece exceeds the target of 3.5%, countermeasures that have been agreed on may be activated.
Furthermore, Panos Skourletis stated the need for a widespread parliamentary majority, saying that the ruling majority lists 153 members and there is no need to search for more. Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said the government will invite all parties to vote in favor of these measures.
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