The IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, has said the Fund will take its decision in the autumn, depending upon whether Athens meets conditions related to pension reform and debt relief.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday condemned a surge in German attacks on refugee shelters and warned that the issue of asylum could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek debt crisis.
The third bailout, which foresees a new round of painful austerity and reform measures, has received a mixed reaction in the country.
“Ms. Lagarde, the head of the IMF, made very clear that if these conditions are met, she will recommend to the IMF board that the IMF takes part in the program from October”, Merkel said.
Friday’s announcement helps pull Greece further away from the abyss into which it stared only a month ago: the collapse of its banks, a catastrophic default and the country’s expulsion from the Eurozone.
The much-awaited 85-billion-euro (95 billion U.S. dollar) cash-for-reforms agreement finally came after numerous rounds of negotiations since late January this year.
This time, he would not be able to count on the votes of the conservative New Democracy opposition, which has already said it would not back the government in a confidence vote – although some other pro-European parties might.
While the broad outlines of the bailout agreement were set at a marathon, all-night summit a month ago and further filled in by negotiators who concluded a draft Tuesday, eurozone ministers devoted some of their six-hour meeting to detailing a plan to recapitalize Greek banks. “In some of these we have tried to play with time” and stagger their implementation, such as gradual increases on diesel fuel taxes for farmers, to soften the blow, Tsakalotos said. We will make sure of that.
Schäuble’s choice of Bild for the interview was a tacit acknowledgment of unresolved domestic sensitivities over the bailout deal. Greece ended accepting almost all of its creditor’s initial demands, despite the fact that a popular vote called by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras initially resulted in the Greek population rejecting the terms in an overwhelming majority.
A bailout deal now has to be approved by national parliaments in the 19-country euro region, including the German Bundestag, which is due to vote on Wednesday.
“That would not be a defeat for the Greek Finance Minister, or for Greece, but for Europe”.
“On this basis, Greece is and will irreversibly remain a member of the euro area”, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said after the deal was sealed.
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Eurozone ministers said the first main 26-billion tranche of the bailout will include an “immediate” payment of 10 billion euros to Greece’s banks, which are desperately short of cash after panicked customers flocked to withdraw their money. After that, the eurozone will discuss rescheduling Greek debt.
