Athens and the Eurozone today reached agreement, after Greece perform some concessions to extend four months financing plan for the country and ensure their economic survival and retention in the euro.
“The first condition is that Greece present a list of structural reforms (…) which should be ready on Monday,” said Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem, then the entity accepting extend the program of financial aid to Greece which expires at the end of February.
After a day of hard negotiations in Brussels Eurogroup finance ministers agreed to extend financial assistance for Greece , in exchange for the country undertakes to submit a plan of reforms.
The German minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, summed up the agreement, on which “all parties can say that is a right decision” after a difficult negotiation that has taken three Eurogroups and contacts and negotiations at the highest political level.
As for Germany, the hardest country with Greece in these negotiations, the result is “an appointment with reality” by the new government of Alexis Tsipras to Athens and his Finance Minister, Yanis Varufakis, the pact allowed to leave behind the MOU.
“Coauthors of our future”
“From today we will be co-authors of our future, today we will be us who decide the reforms “Varufakis said. “We have avoided recessionary measures that were part of the previous agreement, because no requirement to reduce pensions are not mentioned, increase VAT on the islands when spring comes and increases tourism”, held the Greek minister.
The European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, said he was “absolutely convinced that an agreement for Greece and for the euro area”.
“The new Greek government will present its reform agenda” for the new stage, giving priority to the changes that have more in common with the EU and the fight against tax evasion and corruption, and restructuring of public administration and the response to the humanitarian crisis in the country, said a source from the Greek government in Athens, following the announcement of the agreement.
The Euro and European Commissioner for Social Dialogue and vice entity, Valdis Dombrovskis, confirmed on his Twitter account that Greece had a “detailed list of reforms.”
The Eurogroup meeting (the 19 finance ministers of the euro) area scheduled for 14:00 GMT, finally began to 17:30 GMT examining “a draft declaration of the Eurogroup, presented by its President, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, which Greece gave his approval “.
Without an agreement, Greece faced the risk of being quickly without funds, doomed to an exit from the euro zone. Greece , whose aid program expired on February 28, is in favor of turning the page of austerity.
But Germany, represented by his finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble conservative requires that Athens continue cleaning up its public finances and structural reforms demanded in exchange for two schemes to support amounting to 240 billion euros (273 billion dollars).
“ Greece is in the euro area “and” should remain in the eurozone, “he said earlier today French President François Hollande, after a lunch in Paris with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before the start of the Eurogroup.
“Since we have a program for Greece , political action aims to keep Athens in the euro zone,” agreed the Chancellor during a joint press conference at the French capital.
To facilitate agreement, mediation was organized by the euro zone, the IMF and the European Commission between the holder of German finance and his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, maintaining bad relations today said a Greek source.
The initial position of the government of Greek radical left, he took on January 25, was aimed at increasing liquidity to adopt social reforms, which are in contradiction with the tough austerity program Athens imposed after the rescue.
Athens had on Thursday a major step towards compromise and decided to request an “extension” of the financial assistance agreement that the euro zone conminaba him to accept this week .
In a letter to the Eurogroup, the Greek Government also said he was willing to accept the “supervision” of its creditors (EU, ECB and IMF) and pledged to refrain from “any unilateral action” undermine its budgetary targets.
In return, claiming some “flexibility” to allow rectify most painful austerity measures, as promised Alexis Tsipras, the new prime minister of radical left, during his victorious campaign. Precisely the term “flexibility” is what generates fear in several countries, in the case of Greece I used to not fulfill their commitments.
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