Senior German conservative sees open questions on Greek bailout

Greece hopes to conclude negotiations with global creditors by early Tuesday at the latest, a Greek official said as talks continued in Athens on a new multi-billion euro bailout designed to keep the country from financial ruin.

According to the Sunday edition of the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a 27-page draft memorandum of reform commitments must be signed off by the Greek government this weekend to allow the new bailout to go through before the August 20 repayment falls due.

“Efforts think you are made to conclude the settlements, the horizon is by Monday night-time or fast Tuesday”, said a Greek dedicated who exactly fell to be referred to as.

The discussions on Saturday focused on the so-called “prior actions” Greece must legislate to qualify for loans, and the two sides reached agreement on the issue, a senior government official said without giving details.

The deliberations proceeded on…

Athens is racing to wrap up the bailout agreement of as much as ¤86 billion (S$130 billion) by as early as tomorrow in a bid to get the first disbursement of aid by August 20, when it faces a debt payment to the European Central Bank (ECB).

The finance and economy ministers, Euclid Tsakalotos and Giorgos Stathakis, were back at the negotiating table with the ECB, the worldwide Monetary Fund and the European Stability Mechanism at 2:00 pm (1100 GMT) and were still talking eight hours later.

This would open the way for eurozone finance ministers to meet or hold a teleconference on Friday to endorse the up-to-¤86 billion three-year loan programme for Athens.

But the official said sticking points for some member states was still the size of the overall bailout, which some wanted reduced from the up to 86 billion agreed at the euro summit last month because of the political sensitivity.

As for the reforms voted on 15 and 22 July as a condition to start the bailout negotiations, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras will have rely on opposition parties to gather a majority.

But with his popularity among Greeks still high, Tsipras has warned the dissidents of early elections in the autumn if they continue to resist the measures.

“Neither a Syriza-led government nor the country have a future if we accept a third memorandum”, he said in an interview with Avgi on Sunday.