Monday, February 13, 2012

Greece's hopes for quick bailout agreement dashed

Guardian
February 13, 2012

Greece's hopes of quickly securing a €130bn bailout looked to be dashed on Monday after a weekend of rioting and parliamentary tumult when the Papademos government pushed through a new austerity package.

Eurozone finance ministers are expected to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and had been preparing to endorse the rescue programme for Greece.

But in the wake of the drama in Athens, it became clear that the eurozone was not yet ready to wave through Greece's second bailout in two years. Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for monetary affairs, made plain that the Athens vote was not a clincher.

It was a "crucial step" towards qualifying for the second "programme", but not the final step. It looked as though a definitive decision would be left to an EU summit on 1 March.

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