“We don't believe that there is an impasse with the Troika. Talks are continuing in a constructive climate. The aim is to complete them by year's end,” said Antonis Samaras after his meeting with Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels, on Wednesday.

A check on about 2,000 civil servants that have sent more than 100,000 euros abroad has been requested by government reform minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Civil Service Auditors.