AP, Athens :
Greece’s talks with its international creditors on a third bailout worth 85 billion euros ($93 billion) shifted into a higher gear on Friday, with lead negotiators from the European Union and International Monetary Fund meeting key ministers in Athens.
The talks with Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis follow preparatory meetings in the Greek capital this week between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations.
The third bailout will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pledged to back the new cutbacks, while openly admitting that he disagrees with them.
“We will implement them, yes, because we are forced to,” he said in parliament Friday. “But at the same time we will struggle to change them, to improve them and to counter their negative consequences.”
The bailout talks with the IMF, European Commission, European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism must be concluded before Aug. 20. That’s when a debt repayment to the ECB worth more than 3 billion euros is due – money which Greece does not have.
Greece’s talks with its international creditors on a third bailout worth 85 billion euros ($93 billion) shifted into a higher gear on Friday, with lead negotiators from the European Union and International Monetary Fund meeting key ministers in Athens.
The talks with Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis follow preparatory meetings in the Greek capital this week between lower-level officials on reforming the tax system and labor market regulations.
The third bailout will include a new punishing round of austerity measures heaped on a country reeling from a six-year recession and more than 25 percent unemployment. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has pledged to back the new cutbacks, while openly admitting that he disagrees with them.
“We will implement them, yes, because we are forced to,” he said in parliament Friday. “But at the same time we will struggle to change them, to improve them and to counter their negative consequences.”
The bailout talks with the IMF, European Commission, European Central Bank and European Stability Mechanism must be concluded before Aug. 20. That’s when a debt repayment to the ECB worth more than 3 billion euros is due – money which Greece does not have.
