Galery

2

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

Finance Ministers of the eurozone member states will discuss the new bailout to Greece tomorrow, said Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker. He made a statement at 7 pm, i.e. two hours after the beginning of the meeting between the leaders of the Greek political parties supporting the cabinet and Prime Minister Lucas Papademos. Earlier, Jean-Claude Juncker said that the decision on holding the meeting of Eurogroup would be taken depending on the course of today's discussion in Athens.

Similar statements were made by the European Commission representative Amadeu Altafaj, who said that only if the negotiations are productive "we will be able to discuss the specific issues in the Eurogroup".

The spokesman for Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said that the ball is in the field of the Greek authorities and stressed that the European Commission expects a "successful outcome" of the meeting of political leaders in Athens for the basic framework of the second bailout. He stressed that not only the PSI agreement, but the key actions for the second bailout should be clarified before calling a meeting of the finance ministers.

The long awaited meeting of the leaders of PASOK, New Democracy and LAOS with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos started at 5 pm. Initially, it was scheduled for the morning, then for noon, then it was delayed literally hour by hour. George Papandreou, Antonis Samaras and George Karatzaferis got the new memorandum finished in the early morning hours and discussed it with their associates.

Political leaders, Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos and Minister of Employment George Koutroumanis dived into the Prime Minister's residence Maximou without making any statements. Only George Karatzaferis got out of his car on the street in front the building and made a sharp hint at the intentions of Greece’s creditors. "The time the creditors use as a means of extortion makes me concerned about their deeper intentions," he said and went into the courtyard of the residence.

During the meeting, Greek political leaders must approve the austerity measures that creditors set as a prerequisite to grant the second bailout to the country. The meeting is still in progress.

To be continued.