Eurozone ministers back €1bn payout for Greece

Eurozone deputy finance ministers provisionally approved the payout of a €1bn aid tranche for Greece yesterday after Athens withdrew a disputed package of social justice measures from parliament.

“It was approved subject to Greece completing two or three technical steps such as the publication of decisions in the official journal,” an EU official said.

“That should be done by Friday so the board of the European Stability Mechanism can make the disbursement on Friday night.”

Greece’s leftist government was earlier forced by international lenders to withdraw a parallel economic programme bill from parliament after they threatened to withhold the next slice of its bailout finance, EU and Greek sources said.

Prime minister Alexis Tsipras had submitted a package of social justice measures, intended to cope with what he calls the “humanitarian crisis” in Greece, to lawmakers to assuage criticism in his Syriza party of the tough reforms they had been forced to adopt under the country’s third bailout programme.

A Greek parliament source said the bill had been removed from the agenda after the lenders and conservative opposition members asked how the measures would be funded, and it would now be discussed in committee in early January.

The bailout agreed last August stipulates that all economic legislation be submitted for prior consultation to the institutions representing eurozone and IMF creditors.