First published: prospect magazine.co.uk, 13/07/2015
There’s still a long way to go before Greece’s position in the eurozone is secure
“A-Greek-ment” was how European Council President Donald Tusk put it after marathon talks this past weekend. To be clear, what has been agreed is a template for a plan that has to be passed by the Greek parliament by Wednesday. If it is, Angela Merkel will recommend it to the Bundestag for approval, and five other national legislatures must do the same. At that point, the negotiations for a €82-86bn financial programme from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM, Europe’s €500bn bail-out fund) will begin. During the next days, Greece will need bridging loans of up to €7bn to cover debt repayments, and a rise in the so-called Emergency Liquidity Assistance extended by the ECB—a credit line currently standing at €89bn—to Greek banks so that they can re-open, though it will take time before normal services are resumed….Read more:
