Eurozone chief says getting Greece a first, short-term loan is

Osborne held a series of telephone conversations with his counterparts ahead of a meeting in Brussels in Tuesday to underline Britain’s opposition to participating in a bailout, the Financial Times and other media reported.

Osborne reiterated that he would refuse any attempt to use European Union rescue cash to bridge the financing gap.

Greece’s Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos arrives for a meeting at Syriza governing party headquarters in Athens, Tuesday, July 14, 2015.

An anti-austerity protester places a Greek flag next to riot policemen as they guard one of the entrances of the Greek Parliament during a rally against the government’s agreement with its creditors in Athens, Monday, July 13, 2015.

Padoan told the Italian daily Illinois Sole 24 Ore in an interview published Tuesday that “18 months ago we risked much more”, but that structural reforms had helped create “the path to growth”.

There will be no immediate budgetary implications for Ireland if a third bailout for Greece is agreed, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said, though the State is likely to take on additional liabilities.

It was never envisaged for economic crises needing bailouts but was invoked to cope with the Greek and Irish economic collapses, with the United Kingdom in the role of guarantor of the loans to the tune of billions of pounds.

Padoan says, “we avoided the worst”. The ministers are expected to discuss the outcome in a conference call that could take place late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

In another option that would certainly prove to be controversial, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaueble proposed that Greece issue IOU’s to pay pensions and other domestic bills, thereby saving its scarce euros for debt payments.

Treaties allow money to be raised to help an European Union member state “seriously threatened with difficulties caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control”. “It would be probably impossible to back down at this stage, so some kind of a solution will have to be found”.

[BRUSSELS] European finance ministers encountered a range of hurdles to financing Greece through the next few weeks during negotiations over another full-scale bailout.

BRUSSELS-Eurozone governments were racing to find a way to get Greece a few desperately needed short-term financing within the next few days, but legal and political obstacles were complicating the effort, European officials said.

A deal struck Monday by eurozone leaders on a new rescue loan for Greece foresees the debt-burdened state implementing tough economic overhauls and budget cuts in exchange for as much as €86 billion ($96 billion) in new loans.

After the 19 eurozone leaders reached a tentative deal to keep Greece from financial collapse on Monday, the focus turned to how to get Greece a first, small loan so that it can meet looming debt repayments.

“The idea that British taxpayers’ money is going to be on the line in this latest Greek deal is a non-starter”. “The eurozone needs to foot its own bill”.

Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism.