A decision on whether the European Union and the International Monetary Fund will release the next loan installment for Greece is due to be taken in a week but the final decision could still hang on whether New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras gives the country’s lenders his written guarantees to keep to the current strategy for tackling the debt crisis.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos met European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the head of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, in Brussels on Monday. The latter indicated that a decision on the 8-billion-euro tranche would likely be taken when eurozone finance ministers meet on November 29.

“The Eurogroup should be in a position to agree in its next meeting on the disbursement of the sixth tranche of the Greek loan,” he said.

However, it was clear from Papademos’s brief news conference with Barroso that the issue of Greece’s party leaders signing the texts the EU and the IMF have asked for is still an obstacle to the installment being released.

“We are in one of those moments where, with full respect for democracy, different parties need to become united,” said Barroso. “So what we have to do now is concentrate on implementation. Less politics and more commitment. For the European Union and the IMF to support [Greece], they need to be sure that this is for a sustainable outcome, that it’s not just for tomorrow, for a government, but for future governments.”

Papademos said the letters were “necessary to eliminate uncertainties and ambiguities concerning actions to be taken in the future by parties that may be in power.” But he added that it was up to the party leaders how they would confirm their commitment.

Commission sources told Kathimerini that Brussels would not accept as a sign of his commitment Samaras’s letter to the European People’s Party, the grouping of center-right European parties. In his November 13 letter, the ND leader pledged to stick to the economic policies linked to the October 26 deal on a second bailout for Greece but that “certain policies have to modified” to ensure the program is carried out.

Samaras said that he intended “to bring these issues to discussion, along with viable policy alternatives, strictly within the framework outlined in the program.”

Papademos is due to meet Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Tuesday.

 Sixth loan tranche still pending

The European Union is committed to working out a second bailout deal for Greece with private sector involvement by the beginning of 2012, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a press conference in Brussels on Monday afternoon following his first meeting with the prime minister of Greece's new interim unity government, Lucas Papademos, though whether Greece will receive the sixth installment from its first bailout deal remained in the air.

The 8-billion-euro tranche of funding has been kept back by Greece's creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- who are demanding written guarantees from all the heads of three parties in the Greek government -- George Papandreou of PASOK, Antonis Samaras of New Democracy and Giorgos Karatzaferis of the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) -- that terms agreed in Brussels on October 27 will be implemented in full.

So far, Samaras has been unequivocal in his refusal to provide such a written assurance, saying that he has already given his word that he will support the austerity reforms demanded by Greece's creditors.

Asked about the guarantees, Papademos appeared unwilling to discuss the issue in detail, saying instead that the parties in Greece's unity government have achieved consensus and that the government itself will be providing all the guarantees necessary for the release of the sixth aid tranche.

"This letter by the leaders of the parties supporting the government, as been requested by the Eurogroup and the IMF... it is necessary in order to eliminate uncertainties and ambiguities concerning actions to be taken in the future, by parties that may be in power,» Papademos said. «But it's up to the leaders of the relevant parties to decide how this confirmation of the commitment will be made."

"I think we should all realize that our European partners and the IMF are committing themselves to the financing of Greece over a long period of time. And this is the reason why they are expecting a corresponding commitment, not only by this government, but also by the political leaders of the parties that support it, on their continued support and commitment to these policies over the medium and long term,» he said.

Earlier on Monday, a spokesman for the Commission was quoted as saying that written guarantees by all party leaders remain a requirement.

"A clear and unequivocal commitment in writing by the political forces in Greece” for the austerity plan is needed for the next installment of aid under last year’s 110 billion- euro ($148 billion) package, Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for the European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, told reporters in Brussels. “At this stage, we don’t have it,” he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

Without the sixth installment, Greece is at serious risk of defaulting and exiting the eurozone.

Papademos is due to travel to Luxembourg on Tuesday to meet with the country’s prime minister and Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker.