Eurogroup approves loan agreement extension for Athens

It will have to be ratified by national parliaments

Eurogroup FinMins have approved a four-month loan extension that Greece applied for last Friday, giving the debt- and recession-plagued country “breathing room” until late June in order to properly formulate long-term proposals for the future.

 

The agreement was ratified during a tele-conference call on Tuesday. It was first confirmed by Slovak FinMin Peter Kazimir on his Twitter account.

 

The list of commitments tabled by the Greek government includes maintaining state-asset sales, consolidation of state-run pension funds, tax reform towards combating chronic tax fraud and tax evasion, as well as a continuation of privatizations.

 

The EC, the ECB and the IMF – the previous “Troika” – gave a primary go-ahead before the list was presented to the Eurogroup members.

 

The package, however, still needs to be put forth before certain national parliaments for formal consent. According to Bloomberg, officials in Germany, Finland and the Netherlands said they will not stand in the way once their respective governing bodies approve the aforementioned extension.

 

A Bundestag vote will come on Feb. 27, according to Michael Grosse-Broemer, a whip in the lower German legislature. Finland’s government also said the SYRIZA government’s list was comprehensive enough to grant the extension.