Instead of him, President Carlos Papoulias will lead the Greek delegation to Brussels, as stipulated by the European Union protocol.

The new finance minister will be named at tomorrow's meeting of coalition partners.

High taxes and extra charges on the income of ordinary taxpayers, combined with the deepening recession, have made the tax breaks for shipping industrialists a thorn in society’s side. It seems, however, that the new Minister will not change the policy pursued so far.

While voting laws to reduce the number of civil servants, ministers made new appointments, states a report by representatives of the supervisory Troika in Athens.