Brussels, 07/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - "In 2005, the budgetary effort made by Greece was in line with what the Council had recommended a few months ago", Commissioner Almunia told the press after the meeting of the Eurogroup on Monday evening. Further to his meeting with the Greek finance minister, Giorgios Alogoskoufis, he said: "I hope that for the forthcoming decisions to be adopted concerning 2006 and the future, we will also be able to reach an agreement with the Greek authorities and with the Council". Contrary to its plans, Greece ended up deciding not to include the securitisation operation in its draft budget for 2006, which is currently on the table of the Parliament, even before Eurostat had taken position on whether such a procedure would be in line with European accounting standards. For 2006, "certain exceptional measures have been brought in, others have not", said Joaquin Almunia, who is to look into the next stage in the excessive deficit proceedings against Greece in "the first weeks of January". The commitments on the part of the Greek authorities to reduce their deficit to 2.6% in 2006 remain the same, Giorgios Alogoskoufis assured a small group of journalists on Tuesday. Over the period 2004-2006, the adjustment proposed corresponds to a reduction in deficit of 4%, including 3.5% by means of structural measures. "We are reasonably confident that the assessment will be positive", concluded Mr Alogoskoufis, who hopes to bring the deficit down to 2.3% in 2007 and to 1.7% in 2008, in line with the convergence programme he is to submit to the Commission. In its recommendations of last February, the Council told Greece to reduce its deficit in 2006, by dint of permanent measures representing at least 0.6% in GNI (EUROPE 8891). At the time, however, the "initial" excessive deficit in 2004 was put at 5.5%, although after revision, it rose to 6.6%, an increase which everybody will "take account of", Mr Alogoskoufis underlined.