Eurozone agrees to Greece bailout extension

The eurozone has agreed to extend the Greek bailout program as long as Athens sets out key reform commitments.

Eurozone agrees Greece loan extension

IMF Director Christine Lagarde and European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairsand Dutch Minister of Finance and President of the Council, Jeroen Dijsselbloem at the European Council headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium, 20 February 2015.

Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem says the 19 ministers of the eurozone have agreed to extend Greece's crucial bailout by four months as long as Athens sets out key reform commitments.

"The first step is that Greece must present a first list of reform measures ... It should be available and presented on Monday," the Dutch finance minister said on Friday after his eurozone peers agreed a difficult compromise on the Greek bailout program which expires at the end of the month.

"We are leaving behind the days when a list of reforms that Greek society treated as a foreign body - was imposed but not implemented because it was a foreign body. 

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the deal would allow Greece to rebuild its ties with its EU
partners.
       
"The four-month period will be a time to rebuild new relations with Europe and the IMF," Mr Varoufakis told reporters.

He said Greece had not used any threats or bluff to get the deal and added that the deal was a small step to a new direction for Greece.

"As of today, we are beginning to be co-authors of our destiny, co-authors of reforms that we want to implement, which we are going to dictate, which we will discuss with our partners and which we are going to use as a weapon against the malignancies of the Greek social economy; which have been characterising Greece - not for the last few years, but for the last few decades, if not century. Malignancies which we need to target successfully," Mr Varoufakis said.

"...We have found partners amongst those who - up until very recently - looked at us with suspicion. There are some partners still that are looking at us with suspicion. This is our challenge to win over their trust and we intend to do this.

"This is a small step on a long journey. But all journeys must begin with a step. The difference between this step and previous steps is that this is a step in the right direction."

 


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Source: AAP



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