Greece and lenders reach deal on third bailout, only small details left

Greece and its lenders have reached an agreement on the terms of a third bailout, government sources said early on Monday.

The deal appears to have been concluded shortly after 8 a.m. following a marathon last session of talks that began on Monday morning.

Emerging from the Hilton hotel, where the negotiations were taking place, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos suggested a deal is in place.

“We are very close,” he told reporters. “There are a couple of very small details remaining on prior actions.”

Kathimerini understands that the agreement involves the government having to immediately implement 35 prior actions.

The measures demanded include changes to tonnage tax for shipping firms, reducing the prices of generic drugs, a review of the social welfare system, strengthening of the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE), phasing out of early retirement, scrapping tax breaks for islands by the end of 2016, implementation of the product market reforms proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), deregulating the energy market and proceeding with the privatization program already in place.

Should the agreement be finalized, it is likely to be voted on in Greek Parliament on Thursday. This would be followed on Friday by a Eurogroup and the process of other eurozone parliaments approving the deal.

The European Stability Mechanism would then be in a position to disburse new loans to Athens before August 20, when Greece has to pay 3.2 billion euros to the European Central Bank.

Greece is aiming to receive 25 billion euros in the first tranche, allowing it to pay off international lenders, reduce government arrears and have 10 billion euros left for bank recapitalization.