Greece says goodbye to the Troika. Eight years after the day the commissioners set foot in Athens for the first time, the country is regaining its financial sovereignty and is ready to go it alone, while having to continue to respect some constraints.
After a very long negotiation, concluded in the middle of the night, the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg sanctioned the closure of the commissioner, opening what is unanimously defined as "an historic moment", not only for Greece, but for the whole of Europe. There's more: despite Germany's No, it was also approved the long-awaited relief of public debt, extending loan maturities by 10 years. In detail, iUnder the agreement, Greece will be able to postpone by 10 years the payment of the approximately 100 billion euros of loans received from the old EFSF state-saving fund, while the "grace period" (i.e. the one in which do not trigger penalties if the loan is not repaid).
The body made up of the finance ministers of the eurozone countries took note of the 88 reforms approved by Greece to try to improve the fortunes of its economy and comply with the rules set out in the Troika aid plan and therefore gave the ok to send the last tranche of loans. In the shadow of the Parthenon another 15 billion euros will arrive -11 already foreseen plus 4 of additional liquidity - money that will allow the Greeks to have a "buffer" of about 20 billion thanks to which they will not be forced to resort to the markets to finance themselves for the next 18 months. In total, the loans guaranteed by the Troika in the eight years of receivership amount to 273 billion euros.
However, farewell to the Troika does not mean that Greece is "totally" free, there are some conditions to be respected: a un periodic check of creditors to verify that the reforms agreed and public finance targets met (a primary surplus of 3,5% of GDP until 2022 and an annual average of 2,2% between 2023 and 2060). If so after each of these tests, i ministers will guarantee a payment of 600 million every six months until 2022 as long as Athens continues to "behave".
“The Greek crisis ends here, tonight – said the commissioner for economic affairs Pierre Moscovici -. We have finally reached the end of a journey, as long as it is difficult. AND an historic moment". "We have to admit that Greece has done a great job," confirmed French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
