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Greece creditors 'satisfied' with new reform vote
Greece's international creditors are satisfied with the Greek parliament's adoption Thursday of a second batch of reforms needed to unlock another bailout for the cash-strapped country, an EU official said
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reece's international creditors are satisfied with the Greek parliament's adoption Thursday of a second batch of reforms needed to unlock another bailout for the cash-strapped country, an EU official said.
The EU Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund issued a first assessment that the Greek authorities "legally implemented second set of measures in timely and overall satisfactory manner," Commission spokeswoman Meena Andreeva said on her Twitter account..
After a 17-hour summit with eurozone leaders, leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on July 13 reluctantly agreed to push through draconian reforms in return for negotiations for a third desperately needed bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (US$93 billion) over three years.
The parliament last week adopted a first set of reforms on pensions, taxes, labor laws and state asset sales that were harsher than those Greeks had rejected in a July 5 referendum.
On Thursday the parliament voted for changes to the civil justice system, a bank deposit protection scheme and measures to shore up the liquidity of Greece's banks.
The Greek finance ministry said negotiators from the EU, ECB and IMF were likely to fly to Athens on Friday to open the new bailout negotiations.
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Wednesday that Greece and its creditors aim to finalize a bailout deal by mid-August in time for Athens to make a loan repayment on August 20 to the ECB of 3.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion) it cannot afford.
An EU source said there has been talk of setting a negotiating deadline around the 6 or 8th of August, but added that is "very optimistic" and that it will probably take "some more days."(+++)
