Greek Lenders to Arrive in Athens for New Bailout Deal Negotiations

Preliminary talks on a new bailout deal between Greece and its lenders will begin Friday in Athens with the Greek government hoping to finish negotiations by August 18.

ATHENS (Sputnik) — On July 13, Eurozone leaders agreed on a new bailout plan for Greece, providing up to $95 billion to the country over the next three years in exchange for strict austerity measures. On Thursday morning, the Greek parliament passed a second set of reforms, required by the creditors to unlock the aid and proceed with further negotiations.

On Thursday, a source in the Greek government told journalists that Greece will be represented by President of the Council of Economic Advisors (SOE) Giorgos Chouliarakis at the Friday talks.

Lenders taking part in the negotiations will include representatives of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Earlier this week, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalatos said that the Greek government hoped to finish the talks by August 18. In order to achieve this, technical consultations in Athens must be completed by August 12. According to the source, this date was chosen because on August 20 Greece is due to repay $3.2 billion to the ECB.

The source added that during the consultations in Athens, the sides are likely to agree a new memorandum on debt repayment conditions, a schedule of debt repayments for the next three years and a loan agreement that would take into account the needs of both the Greek government and banks.

He added that the main aim of the Greek government is to avoid having to adopt any new austerity reforms in 2015, apart from those to which it has already agreed.