Under a deal signed previous year with euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Greece can receive financial assistance of up to 86 billion euros by 2018 in return for agreed reforms.
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“What unites us are our common sea, and common problems, and faith in a European vision, Tsipras said as the discussions began”.
With the EU economy struggling with anemic growth, the European Central Bank urged governments in the 19-country euro currency union Thursday to do more to improve economic fundamentals.
European Union leaders were scheduled to meet in Bratislava next week.
Bringing together the members worst hit by the EU’s twin recession and refugee crises, the mini-summit will focus on “protecting borders, fostering growth, fighting against immigration. and acting together against terrorism”, French President Francois Hollande said at the meeting’s start.
‘If we do not prioritize employment, Europe is threatened by decomposition, with other possible referendums against the European Union and anti-European government within the Union, ‘ he noted.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said number-crunching needed a rethink.
But Renzi, who has often challenged fiscal orthodoxy, stressed Friday that “we are at a phase where Europe can not go on being just about rules and technicalities”. “A social Europe, of ideals and of virtue”.
He said there was a need to “give new impetus to growth and productive reconstruction”, and denied the meeting was an attempt to drive a wedge within the bloc. The next meeting of the grouping was scheduled in Portugal, Tsipras said.
Meanwhile, a conservative lawmaker back in Germany, Manfred Weber, called on Athens to deliver on promised reforms under its third bailout.
Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, the largest in the European Parliament, was even more scathing.
The European Commission is cited as stating that the tranche will not be disbursed as Greece has implemented only 2 of the 15 political reforms required for the release of the funds.
Some 2,500 officers from the police, coast guard, and fire service – most in uniform – marched through the center of Thessaloniki in northern Greece Friday, demanding a reversal of salary cuts linked to the country’s global bailout.
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Athens, facing a second bailout review entailing an unpopular loosening of labor laws in the autumn, is keen to show that painful tax rises and pension cuts as part of its 86 billion-euro bailout deal previous year will bear fruit.
