Eurozone ministers demand swift action, more measures from Greece

BRUSSELS – Greece’s eurozone partners asked it to vote for prior actions immediately, to adopt further measures and to add more detail to existing ones at Saturday’s Eurogroup, sources have told Kathimerini.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos encountered skepticism from some of his counterparts, who expressed concern about whether the government could be trusted to implement the measures that would accompany a third bailout.

A representative of the institutions said that the discussion is centred around a three-year program worth more than 80 billion euros.

A number of states expressed their desire that the International Monetary Fund should be part of any new programme and that the Greek government should start legislating measures straight away.

Sources also said that European Central Bank president Mario Draghi expressed concern during the talks about the systemic risk that would be caused by Greece not paying a 3.7-billion-euro bond held by the ECB when it matures on July 20.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is thought to have played down the risk.