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Greek faces tough conditions under deal with euro zone

(Agencies) Updated: 2015-07-14 09:56

Greek faces tough conditions under deal with euro zone

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a news conference at the end of a euro zone leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 13, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

 

CONDITIONAL AGREEMENT

Greece won conditional agreement to receive a possible 86 billion euros ($95 billion) over three years. As part of the deal, euro zone finance ministers will discuss on Monday how to keep Greece financed during the time it will need to agree a bailout, but none of the options appear easy, officials said.

Athens must meet a tight timetable for enacting unpopular reforms of value added tax, pensions, budget cuts, bankruptcy rules and an EU banking law that could be used to make big depositors take losses.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could recommend "with full confidence" that the Bundestag authorise the opening of loan negotiations once the Greek parliament has approved the entire programme and passed the first laws.

The Bundestag is due to vote on Greece on Friday.

Merkel's allies meanwhile defended the deal, with her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, saying Europe had won and Germany "was part of the solution -- from the beginning until the end!"

But in Greece, relief was mixed with anger at Germany. 

Asked whether the tough conditions imposed on Greece were not similar to the 1919 Versailles treaty that forced crushing reparations on a defeated Germany after World War One, Merkel said: "I won't take part in historical comparisons, especially when I didn't make them myself."

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