BRUSSELS: Greece secured a ¤6.8bn ($8.7bn) lifeline from the eurozone yesterday, officials said, but was told it must keep its promises on cutting public sector jobs and other reforms in order to get all the cash.
The deal, which spares Greece defaulting on debt that falls due in August, will see Athens drip fed support under close watch from its international creditors to drive through unpopular reforms.
Under the terms of the deal, eurozone finance ministers agreed to make staggered payments of aid to Greece starting with a ¤2.5bn instalment from eurozone countries in July, said officials close to the talks.
The agreement foresees a further payment from euro zone countries of ¤500m in October.
Central banks in the Eurosystem will contribute ¤1.5bn in July and ¤500m in October, the officials said. The International Monetary Fund will give ¤1.8bn in August. “That’s the way it will be done,” said one of the officials.
After more than three years on life support from Europe, Greece’s governing coalition is split over how to meet the demands of its bailout programme, putting the country centre stage and threatening to reignite the euro zone debt crisis.
Meanwhile, thousands of Greek municipal workers and school teachers took to the streets of Athens yetserday in a noisy protest against public sector layoffs the government has promised its international lenders in exchange for bailout funds.
More than 6,000 local administration workers, among them guards and uniformed municipal police on motorbikes, marched to the Administrative Reform Ministry in central Athens, waving black flags, honking horns and sounding sirens. “Take your memorandum and get out of here!” the workers chanted, in the first protest since the lenders completed their latest review of Greece’s cost cutting efforts on Sunday, a sign of the resistance the government may face.
Hundreds more rallied outside the Interior Ministry later on Monday, where the administrative and interior ministers were meeting with local government representatives, chanting “Thieves” and “Traitors”.
The head of the POE-OTA union, Themis Balasopoulos, broke the news to workers that school guards would be placed in a “mobility scheme” by the end of summer - meaning they will be transferred or fired within a year - prompting some workers to break into tears.
“It’s not fair,” said Georgia Martaki, a state school guard. “I pay my rent, my electricity and phone bills only because I have this job. It’s not fair to fire a 50-year-old woman like me, to throw me in the rubbish.”
The largest public sector union, ADEDY, also staged a work stoppage in Athens. Municipal workers planned another 24-hour nationwide strike today.
Reuters
