The financial aid is part of the 86 billion-euro bailout agreed to between Greece and the euro area previous year.
Advertisement
The precondition for the waiver is that the euro zone bailout fund ESM will disburse the next, 7.5 billion euro trance of aid to Greece prior to the decision, as now scheduled.
The finance chiefs endorsed the disbursement at a meeting of the European Stability Mechanism, the 19-nation bloc’s firewall fund, in Luxembourg on Thursday. An additional 1.8 billion euros it is allowed to use as a means to support the real economy. The payout will cover Greece’s debt-servicing needs as well as the clearing of some arrears.
Including Greece in the asset purchases would also be just a small boost for the country, as the European Central Bank could only buy small amounts, less than 3 billion euros now, given various eligibility requirements.
The Greek finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos, however, believes that his country still had a long way to go, saying: “The Greek people have suffered a great deal over the last five, six years and it’s not obvious that the successes are in sight yet”.
Pierre Moscovici the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs made the announcement:”Huge progress has been achieved”. As announced last month, ESM members are in principle willing to support Greece’s efforts with further debt relief measures, including short-term measures that can be applied during the course of the current programme.
Advertisement
Greece has completed all the measures needed to receive a new tranche of bailout from its global creditors, Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters on Thursday.
