Greek government officials discussed a draft of the country’s third bailout agreement drawn up on the basis of discussions with EU/IMF lenders, a government official said on Saturday, boosting hopes a deal could be wrapped up in days.
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Efforts are being made to conclude the negotiations, the horizon is by Monday night or early Tuesday.
“When the brand new bailout involves parliament for a vote will probably be one invoice with two articles – one article would be the mortgage settlement and the MoU (memorandum of understanding) and the second article would be the prior actions”, the unnamed Greek official informed Reuters.
The deliberations proceeded on…
Greece’s finance and economy ministers were locked in negotiations with representatives of creditors on Sunday.
The negotiations began on 20 July.
Athens is negotiating with EU institutions and the worldwide Monetary Fund for up to €86 billion in fresh loans so as to stave off economic collapse and remain in the Eurozone.
The European Central Bank deadline means an agreement will have to be reached by next Monday to prevent Greece having to ask for a bridging loan to stop it defaulting on another repayment.
The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is under pressure not only from the payment deadline but also from many in his radical left Syriza party who say the new accord will pile further austerity on a weakened economy and goes against the party’s campaign pledges.
But the official said sticking points for some member states was still the size of the overall bailout, which some wanted reduced from the up to 86 billion agreed at the euro summit last month because of the political sensitivity.
Panagiotis Lafazanis, the former energy minister who voted against the new bailout deal, has regarded it as “a negotiating fiasco” and said that the PM could not “avoid the outcry by resorting guiltily and hurriedly to elections”.
On Sunday, pro-government newspaper Avgi said: “All signs are pointing to an agreement… possibly being reached even today”.
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“If some of our lawmakers decide to withdraw their confidence towards to government, the rift that was created in the last votes in parliament will be unavoidably turned into a void”, Pappas said in an interview to Real News newspaper, once again fuelling speculations over a snap election after the summer.
