MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. The conditions for providing another bailout package to Athens are hard to describe as Greece’s victory, chairman of State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs Alexey Pushkov told TASS on Monday.
"It is very hard to call this victory for Greece because conditions for such bailout package that will be provided by the European Union later today are much worse than everything offered to them before the referendum," Pushkov said.
The only thing that Greece kept was its place in the Eurozone, the lawmaker noted, adding that Athens managed to avert sharp blow to the quality of life and rapid growth of poverty rates. "They managed to avoid that, but at what price — the price of deadlocked development which does not give Greece real prospects for economic and financial resurrection," Pushkov noted.
"They also agreed to set up the guarantee fund of €50 billion of Greece’s state assets that will be privatized or sold if the European Union decides that Greece does not implement the agreement properly. It can be met with serious resistance even from the considerable part of the Syriza party [ruling party] members," he stressed.
The agreement with Greece has been reached earlier on Monday and the conditions for launching talks on the new aid package have been discussed, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Brussels. "We have cleared the way towards new aid," Merkel said, stressing that writing off the country’s debt is not on the agenda.
Merkel stressed that there are now all the conditions for talks on aid for Greece as part of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The new three-year bailout may reach between Ђ82 and Ђ86 billion. The Eurogroup, an informal body of the ministers of the euro area member states, is ready to agree on additional measures if necessary, she added.
The compromise agreement was reached at the meeting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Council President Donald Tusk.
According to preliminary reports, the final decision on forming the third international package of macro-financial aid to Greece should be adopted by on July 15 by the Eurogroup, an informal body of the ministers of the euro area member states.