The Eurogroup on Friday entrusted the European Union institutions with the task of swiftly negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the first step to a three-year bailout program for Greece. The European Commission in cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) will negotiate the MoU detailing the policy conditionality attached to the loan, according to a statement issued by the Group.
Earlier in the day, Greece was granted a 7.16-billion-euro bridge financing to clear its arrears with the IMF and the Bank of Greece and to repay the ECB.
To date, Greece's arrears to the IMF total about 2 billion euros and the country has to repay a 3.5-billion-euro loan to the ECB on July 20.
The 19 leaders of the Eurogroup on Monday struck a fresh deal on supporting Greece with a third bailout from the European Stability Mechanism worth up to 86 billion euros (about 93 billion U.S. dollars), but it could take weeks for negotiations on the bailout to complete.
