MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Sunday, the Hellenic Parliament approved a bill aiming to satisfy creditor demands ahead of the Eurogroup meeting, adopting a contingency mechanism that allows the government to slash spending further if needed, as demanded by the Eurogroup.
"We reached a full staff-level agreement… and that was welcomed and agreed to by the Eurogroup today," Dijsselbloem told reporters following a state-of-play meeting among the 19 ministers.
Greece has agreed to the "full" reform package reached in July 2015, he underscored, adding that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) would make the funds available.
"Part of it is the contingency mechanism to ensure that Greece stays on the fiscal path," Dijsselbloem stressed.
An accompanied statement confirmed the first disbursement of 7.5 billion would be issued by the ESM in June.
"The subsequent disbursements to be used for arrears clearance and further debt servicing needs will be made after the summer."
Greek government sources told Euronews earlier that Athens would receive the first installment of $8.3 billion in June and the second "sub-tranche" of $3.1 billion in September. Athens owes the IMF nearly 300 million euros this June and up to 450 million euros under the first bailout program in 2010.
Greece signed a deal with its creditors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) and some Eurozone nations, in July 2015 for a third bailout package worth 86 billion euros ($96 billion) in exchange for unpopular austerity reforms that include pension cuts and tax hikes.
