After a night spent arguing, the Greek Parliament approved the third aid package this morning agreed with international creditors. Also thanks to the support of the opposition, the text was approved with 222 votes in favour, 64 against and 11 abstentions. The ball is now in the hands of the Eurogroup, which will meet today to give the definitive green light to the bailout plan, which is worth 85 billion euros over three years (10 to the banks). However, ratification is not obvious, given the perplexities expressed by Germany on the 35 measures which Athens has undertaken to put in place as a counterpart to the financial aid.
Yesterday the Financial Times wrote that Berlin would circulate a document among eurozone partners with its objections to the third bailout plan. In particular, the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, would have to object on three points: the sustainability of the Greek debt, the possible postponements of reforms and the role of the IMF, which in the two previous bailouts supported Brussels in aid. Schaeuble notes that some of the agreed reforms contain some postponements to October and November for implementation and others "are not yet specified".
For these reasons, in recent days Germany has asked Athens to accept a bridging loan that will allow for more accurate negotiation of the new bailout plan. But the Greek premier Alexis Tsipras he said this morning that a bridging loan “would be a return to an endless crisis. It is precisely what some systematically seek and we have a duty to avoid it”.
The Greek Prime Minister then invited the deputies "not to grant the most conservative fringes of Europe the unexpected opportunity to derail the agreement, a hypothesis which would lead to the multiplication of bridging loans", recalling that Greece "represented the vanguard of a progressive Europe that calls for an alternative way. Our position has not changed but we cannot rely on chimeras”.
on your part, the International Monetary Fund, before deciding whether or not to participate in the forthcoming Greek bailout, once again asked its European partners to launch a plan for the reduction of the Greek public debt. “In the coming period – said the senior official of the Monetary Fund, Delia Velculescu -, we want to work with the Greek authorities to develop their program in more detail and with Greece's European partners to make decisions on Greek debt relief, to make it more sustainable".
