Crunch meeting will consider Greece’s bailout progress today after MPs approved a €5bn package of austerity reforms * The agenda: Crucial eurogroup meeting today * Overnight: MPs approve austerity plan, despite protests 8.57am BST Here’s our latest dispatch from Athens: Related: Greek MPs approve toughest austerity measures yet amid rioting 8.56am BST The Greek crisis is returning to centre stage on today, says BLOOMBERG. Aid deliberations by its international creditors will signal whether the country faces a renewed period of political drift or wins some economic breathing space after six years of turbulence. Greece’s most influential creditors, Germany and the International Monetary Fund, remain deadlocked over the terms of Greece’s bailout plan, which the IMF thinks is badly flawed but Germany says can’t be changed. The Eurogroup, as the committee of eurozone finance ministers is known, will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss Greece’s fiscal strategy and the sustainability of its debts. A resolution of the deep differences isn’t expected. Eurozone officials said that the stalemate over the contingency measures made it unlikely that any agreement to close the first review will be reached at Monday’s meeting. Greece needs the additional bailout aid by July, when €3.5bn in debt comes due. The Greek government has sought to blame the IMF for the delays, and a senior Greek official said on Sunday that both the commission and the European Central Bank believed that Athens had done enough to close the review. 8.33am BST THERE WERE FAMILIAR SCENES IN ATHENS LAST NIGHT AS MPS GATHERED TO VOTE ON A €5.4BN PACKAGE OF BUDGET CUTS AND PENSION REFORMS. #Mitsotakis : You have deprived #Greece of 210.000 employment places when you drove the economy to recession. #greekparliament #Mitsotakis : Your goal is middle class impoverishment in favour of tax evaders and financial nomenclature. #greekparliament #Mitsotakis : You're not a Leftist, Mr #Tsipras , you're an opportunist. An opportunist that would do anything to sit on the PM chair. We have an important opportunity before us for the country to break this vicious cycle, and enter a virtuous cycle. After six years (of crisis), the Eurogroup will meet to discuss debt relief. Some hours ago, #Greece's Parliament approved a pension and tax reforms' package - only thanks to the 153 votes of the ruling coalition MPs. 8.08am BST GOOD MORNING. The long-running, seemingly never-ending Greek debt crisis is back on the agenda. Related: IMF threatens to pull out of Greek rescue Continue reading...
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