Brussels: A Greek parliament vote satisfies the initial terms of a bailout deal between Athens and its EU creditors agreed at a 17-hour summit earlier this week, an EU spokeswoman said on Thursday.
"The authorities have legally implemented the first set of four measures agreed at the eurosummit in a timely and overall satisfactory manner," spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt told reporters.
Parliament in Athens adopted overnight a set of sweeping reforms after radical left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged them to back the unpopular measures, a condition to begin discussions for its new 86-billion-euro bailout.
Michel Reijns, spokesman for Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the Eurogroup of finance ministers representing the 19-country eurozone, said the group had finished a teleconference on Greece and would issue a statement later Thursday.
The ministers were expected to discuss a three-month 7.0 billion euro bridging loan for Greece through an EU-wide crisis fund to hold Athens over until its new bailout is ratified. Britain and the Czech Republic resisted the use of this fund, but European officials told AFP that a compromise was in the works and could be finalised on Friday.
"We do think there are a number of solutions that could be found, our objective here is the principle that British taxpayers' money should not be put on the line for a financial package for the eurozone," a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Tsipras agreed Monday to tough reforms after 17 hours of gruelling negotiations with fellow eurozone leaders in return for a third massive rescue programme in five years. To rebuild the trust they said was lost during six months of bitter negotiations with the Tsipras government, the eurozone leaders urged him to immediately push through reforms on taxes and pensions before they agree to actually implement the new bailout deal.
