A “technical deal” has been reached between Greece and its international creditors for a third bailout, said an EU spokesperson. The agreement gives Greece at least 85 billion euros in fresh loans for three more years.
The announcement on Tuesday followed marathon talks between Greece and its international creditors, which witnessed rifts between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU.
“The institutions and the Greek authorities achieved an agreement in principle on a technical basis. Now as a next step, a political assessment will be made,” said EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt on Tuesday.
“As long as negotiations are ongoing and no political agreement is reached, we will not comment on the details of any agreement,” Breidthardt said.
The spokeswoman added that EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker would hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande later on Tuesday.
According to reports on Monday, the deal would witness the dispersal of at least 85 billion euros ($94 billion) once the Greek parliament passed a set of reforms, including the formation of a controversial privatization fund that nearly froze talks in July.
The three-year rescue program is expected to pass through the Greek parliament in a bill split into two articles, one on the loan agreement and the other on the necessary reforms to unlock the loan’s first disbursement.
The agreement stipulates that Greece is expected to have a budget surplus of 0.5 percent in 2016, followed by 1.75 percent in 2017, and 3.5 percent in 2018, though the balance would not include debt servicing, according to a government source. For 2015, Greece is expected to have a primary deficit of 0.25 percent of the year’s output.
After the bill passes through the Greek parliament, the deal must be sent to eurozone finance ministers, some of whom – such as Germany – would then have to proceed with having it approved by their respective countries.
The deal was expected to be reached ahead of a looming ECB repayment in the amount of 3.4 billion euros ($3.7 billion) scheduled for August 20.
Without a deal, debt-stricken Greece would have defaulted on another one of its loans, after becoming the first industrialized nation to fall in arrears with the IMF for failing to meet a June 30 repayment deadline.
ls/kms DW (AFP, Reuters, dpa)