Greece deal: Tsipras says bailout ensures Grexit won't happen
EU president Donald Tusk said the eurozone summit has reached a unanimous agreement on the Greek bailout.
Mr Tusk said the deal includeed "serious reforms" and has now called for Finance Ministers to meet again to discuss the document, which comes after over 16 hours of negotiations.
He said the deal could pave the way for Greece to remain a member of the euro.
The Greek government had been resisting calls to have the IMF involved in any new bailout and a German demand to move €50bn worth of public assets out of the country to serve as collateral for fresh loans.
A lot of the measures have to include binding legislation which has to be written by July 15 - just two days away.
The measures include streamlining the VAT system, broadening the tax base, pension reform and changing the retirement age. Further details are emerging now at a press conference in Brussels.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his country's new bailout deal should persuade markets that a possible Greek exit from the euro "is an issue of the past".
That, he said, would lead to investments returning to Greece and balancing out the recessionary measures that the deal includes.
Mr Tsipras said: “The decision today keeps Greece in conditions of financial stability, it gives the possibility of recovery. At the same time though, we knew from before, that it would be an agreement whose implementation is difficult.”
But he promised the burdens of the new agreement would be fairly shared, and vowed to fight the “oligarchy” in his country.
Stock markets across Europe climbed as investors breathed a sigh of relief that months of discussions yielded a new agreement for Greece.
Germany’s DAX was 1.2% higher, while the CAC-40 in France rose by 1.6%. The Stoxx 50 index of top European shares was up 1.7%.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the eurozone is open to the idea of giving Greece some debt relief, but she has ruled out an outright cut in the country's debt level.
Speaking after an agreement to start bailout negotiations with Greece, Ms Merkel said the eurozone “is prepared, if it becomes necessary, to take additional measures” to ease Greece’s debt burden.
She noted that the eurozone could give Greece “a longer grace period”. The German chancellor insisted that a direct cut is not an option.
Ms Merkel insisted that no relief will come until after “the first successful assessment of the new Greek programme”.
Ms Merkel said she recommended the start of negotiations with the cash-strapped country with “full conviction”, but stressed that trust with Greece “needs to be rebuilt”.
Officials including European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said the deal means that Greece will not have to leave the euro currency, the so-called Grexit.
French president Francois Hollande said the Greek parliament should convene within hours to adopt new reforms, and has praised the fact that the deal should keep Greece in the euro.
For the eurozone to have lost Greece as a member would have been to lose “the heart of our civilisation,” Mr Hollande said.
Nine hours after a self-imposed deadline passed, the leaders announced the breakthrough early today.
If the talks had failed, Greece could have faced bankruptcy and a possible exit from the euro, the European single currency that the country has been a part of since 2002.
No country has ever left the joint currency, which launched in 1999, and there is no mechanism in place for one to do so.
For three days of negotiations between Greece and its international creditors, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras held out for a better deal to sell to his reluctant legislature in Athens this week, even though financial collapse is getting closer by the day.
A breakthrough came in a meeting between Mr Tsipras, German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande and EU president Donald Tusk.
The breakthrough came after the threat of expulsion from the euro put intense pressure on Mr Tsipras to swallow politically unpalatable austerity measures because his people overwhelmingly want to stay in the eurozone.
Greece’s creditors are demanding tough austerity measures in exchange for its third bailout in five years.
Earlier, a Greek official said the key sticking points were the involvement of the International Monetary Fund in Greece’s bailout program and a proposal that Greece set aside €50bn of state-owned assets in a fund for eventual privatisation.
The official said any agreement would provide quick help for Greek banks from the European Central Bank. Without it, they risk running out of money this week.
The negotiations began on Saturday with a meeting of finance ministers. The heads of state convened mid-afternoon on Sunday and were still negotiating at dawn Monday.
The deal on the table appeared to include commitments from Mr Tsipras to push a drastic austerity programme including pension, market and privatisation reforms through parliament by Wednesday, and from the 18 other eurozone leaders to start talks on a new bailout.
Sunday’s four-page discussion paper put to eurozone leaders spoke of a potential “time-out from the euro area” for Greece if no agreement could be found.
It highlighted the increasing frustration of European leaders during five months of fruitless talks with Greece.
“The most important currency has been lost: that is trust and reliability,” Ms Merkel said.
Mr Tsipras insisted his government was ready to clinch a deal.
“We owe that to the peoples of Europe who want Europe united and not divided,” he said. “We can reach an agreement tonight if all parties want it.”
Mr Hollande insisted it was vital to keep Greece in the euro and said in the event of a departure, “it’s Europe that would go backward. And that I do not want”.
Greece has received two previous bailouts, totalling €240bn, in return for deep spending cuts, tax increases and reforms from successive governments.
Although the country’s annual budget deficit has come down dramatically, Greece’s debt burden has increased as the economy has shrunk by a quarter.
The Greek government has made getting some form of debt relief a priority and hopes that a comprehensive solution will involve European creditors at least agreeing to delayed repayments or lower interest rates.
Greek debt stands at around €320bn – a staggering 180% or so of the country’s annual gross domestic product.
Few economists think that debt will ever be fully repaid. Last week, the International Monetary Fund said Greece’s debt will need to be restructured.
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