How the memorandum era ends on December 8

A new framework agreement with the Europeans will replace the memorandum

Greece faces the most critical days following the break out of the crisis in 2010 and the first Memorandum signed between the Greek government and international lenders, since the current government is working on a new framework agreement with the Europeans, which will replace the memorandum.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos count their hopes for their political future on this agreement, since they believe that Greece’s exit from the memorandum will be translated as a big and successful national victory gaining more votes in the next national elections.

The key date for government’s goals is December 8, when Eurogroup meeting will take place and European partners will hopefully agree with this new framework for Greece.

The new framework

The president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, said recently that ECB would continue assisting financially Greek banks provided that Greece will accept to enter a new program.

The new framework agreement will include specific financial assistance, but also the possibility for further financial aid, whereas the lenders will monitor the progress of the program. However, the Greek government will decide on the policy to be followed in the new framework, provided it does not go beyond the fiscal targets, ie achieving primary surplus and lower deficit.

The main difference between this framework and the Memorandum is that Greece should ask for the framework of cooperation with EU and it will not be imposed by the lenders. Also, the framework will be drafted by the Greek government along with European partners according to Greek standards.

However, the end of memorandum era will come depending on two conditions:

1. If Troika’s evaluation show that everything is going well and Greece has fulfilled most of the prerequisites for the disbursement of the 3.6 billion tranche
2. If the Troika come to an agreement with the government on what actions should be taken before Greece’s exit from Memorandum

If these two conditions are fulfilled, we can say that the government approaches its target to exit from the Memorandum.