The Eurogroup decided yesterday evening to pay Greece 2,5 billion in aid after the national procedures are concluded. "Further work will have to be done to fully implement the program before July 19," said the president of the Erogroup, Jereon Dijsselbloem, specifying that another half billion will arrive in October.
Greece will therefore receive 2,5 billion euros in July - two of which from the central banks of the Eurozone countries and half a billion from the International Monetary Fund - provided that "it implements the planned actions by 19 July", he underlined Dijsselbloem.
The division of aid to Athens into sub-tranches (in total Athens will have to benefit from 8 billion euros, but only 2,5 are mobilised) is linked to the work of the Greek government: "In many areas we have to find more decisive measures to accelerate the recovery”, made it clear Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs.
In particular, Greece is being asked to proceed with tax reform and the public sector and with liberalisation, "opening up the market for goods and services", specified Rehn.
Only if significant results are achieved in this sense, in October Greece will receive another half a billion from the International Monetary Fund (thus bringing financial assistance to three billion).
