Photo - in.gr
Greece has reached to an agreement with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank. This happened late last night at a meeting of the IMF mission with the Ministry of Finance of Greece. The agreement will unblock hundreds of billions of euros in financial aid for the broken under the weight of the huge foreign debt Greek economy. Today at 17.00 hours Greek time in Brussels on a special meeting will be in session the finance ministers of the countries from the eurozone to approve the agreement. The exact amount of the aid for Greece will be announced after the Eurogroup meeting on a joint press conference of the president of the group Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, which is expected to start around 19.00 hours Greek time.
Framework of the agreement was presented by Prime Minister George Papandreou on an emergency cabinet meeting. "Our fellow citizens will suffer heavy sacrifices, but the alternative is a disaster," admitted the Prime Minister. He stressed on the fact that today an agreement is announced which will provide a financial assistance of unprecedently great amount to Greece, but which will require unprecedently strict financial constraints by the Greeks. “I do not care about mandates. I am interested that when, I hand the baton to the next Prime Minister, Greece is not bankrupt, but it is reborn,” finished dramatically Papandreou.
Tomorrow, Monday, May 5, at 11.00 hours a.m. George Papandreou will officially inform President of the country Karolos Papoulias about the agreement.
Currently with the exclusive interest on the part of the world media, the Greek Finance Minister George Papakonstantinou announces to journalists details about the Agreement. The purpose of stringent financial measures is to reduce the budget deficit under № per cent of the GDP by 2014, when the decrease of the external debt of Greece will start. As part of the painful measures the Greek Government increases the Value Added Tax and imposes once again an additional tax on profitable businesses.
Expect further details.