And finally came the wait white smoke for Greece. After more than 17 hours of dramatic negotiations in the night atEurosummit, shortly after 8 this morning, the Belgian premier Charles Michel tweeted a single word: "Agreement".
The agreement was confirmed, again on Twitter, by the President of the European Council Tusk after a few minutes.
EuroSummit has unanimously reached agreement. All ready to go for ESM program for #Greece with serious reforms & financial support
- Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) 13 July 2015
The Europe through Fund Esm grant 86 billion euros of new aid (Including 25 to the banks) in Athens so that Greece avoids bankruptcy but has set very demanding conditions, on which the Greek premier Alexis Tsipras had initially vacillated: rapid approval of the main reforms in Greece (VAT, pensions, privatisation, civil code), establishment of a loan guarantee fund to be paid by Athens of 50 billion euros (of which 25 billion will be used for bank recapitalisation, 12,5 billion for debt reduction and 12,5 billion for investments to relaunch growth), involvement in the negotiation in the management of new aid from the International Monetary Fund.
In exchange, the Greek government will have to translate into law by Wednesday 15 July some measures including the increase in VAT and the anticipation of pension reform measures and by the 22nd the adoption of the new code of civil procedure and the transposition of the European rules for bank resolution. Furthermore, the Troika method is effectively back: the memorandum of understanding (a model that Tsipras had rejected as soon as he arrived in government) which will be negotiated expressly provides for consultation and agreement with creditors "on all the laws on the relevant areas before the discussion in parliament".
From the final agreement document is all references to Grexit disappeared, as the German minister Schaeuble would have liked instead, thanks to the success of the mediation of the doves including above all the French president Francois Holland and the Italian premier Matteo Renzi.
The positive reactions of the markets are immediate but the political reactions will presumably be very strong especially in Greece, where Tsipras could proceed with a reshuffle with the expulsion of the maximalists, but also in Germany and the rest of Europe. The Greek Parliament will rule on the entire agreement between tomorrow and after.
