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While Greece's parliament is preparing to vote on the first package of measures that are envisaged in the agreement signed between Athens and its creditors, the euro zone is still looking for methods to implement the bridge financing to the country worth 12 billion euro - 7 billion euro by 20 July and 5 billion euro if the negotiations are not completed on time in mid-August, in order for Greece to be able to repay its obligations next month.

In his statements before the start of today's ECOFIN meeting in Brussels, President of Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said that efforts are made so that Greece can obtain the money to pay its debts to the European Central Bank from 20 July onwards. "We are considering all the instruments and funds that we could use. All the alternatives however seem to have disadvantages or legal objections and we are therefore still working," he said.

Greece needs the bridge financing worth 7 billion euro to repay its obligations to the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The first tranche will be to the amount of 3.5 billion euro and it will pay the maturities of Greek government bonds held by the European Central Bank. On the same day, Athens will have to repay 2.1 billion euro to the International Monetary Fund (1.6 billion of outstanding loans in June and another 450 million euro that it had to pay yesterday). And all that because the International Monetary Fund is a senior creditor and it should receive the loan payment first among all others.

In August, Greece has to make two more payments to it. On 1 August, it must repay a loan of 190 million euro and another 600 million euro that Athens used from the special account of the International Monetary Fund to pay its obligations in May. In addition, part of the 7 billion euro is intended for the payment of the loan to the Bank of Greece amounting to 472 million euro, which was not paid on 30 June.

According to the sources of the newspaper Kathimerini, to overcome many of the difficulties described by Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Greece must provide guarantees to obtain the bridge financing because no rescue programme is being applied in it. The main reason for this is the complete lack of confidence in the Greek government on the part of the euro zone.

According to the German edition of Handelsblatt, in conversations with colleagues, German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble had suggested that Greece issued IOUs to be able to serve part of its obligations inside the country. The publication states that this option was discussed at yesterday's meeting of the Eurogroup.

The article notes that the use of these bonds is controversial because, according to experts, they are the first step towards the introduction of a parallel currency. In all cases, this payment method is suitable only for payments inside the country (bills, wages etc.), but not for the foreign debt.

Meanwhile, Greek financiers told GRReporter that the introduction of IOUs would be almost inevitable in view of the dramatic deterioration in the economy following the closure of banks.