Measures designed to ease the pressure on over-indebted households, included in article 49 of the labour ministry's draft omnibus bill, were withdrawn by Labour Minister George Koutroumanis on Thursday, after discussion on the bill had begun in Parliament.

The labour minister said that the decision to withdraw the measures was taken because consultation with the European Central Bank was continuing and that they would be re-tabled as an amendment once the ECB report on the issue was released some time next week.

The specific article introduced a series of measures to ease pressure on households with an excess debt burden, such as an extension for debt settlement, more favourable interest rates and a freeze on a debtor's main residence, as well as a ban on seizing sums less than 1,500 euro in bank accounts, or 2,000 euro for joint accounts.

It also introduced changes to the regime for out-of-court debt settlements and made the measures for households open to entrepreneurs that had one-person businesses and do not have the right to file for bankruptcy under the code for businesses.