Greece Reaches Agreement with Lenders

Greece finally reached an agreement on a new financial bailout package with its creditors on Monday to remain in the eurozone for now. According to the Associated Press, this agreement was reached after lengthy negotiations that continued until early Monday morning. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, announced the agreement on his Twitter account. The leftist government of Alexis Tsipras, which opposes the austerity measures imposed by the European Union, has been negotiating with the EU for six months to ease the repayment terms of the loans. Despite the EU's opposition, Tsipras put the creditors' previous conditions to a referendum, where nearly 62% of voters rejected these terms. Following this referendum, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned to pave the way for an agreement with the lenders. The former finance minister stated that European creditors did not want him to remain in office, and the Prime Minister considered his resignation a constructive move. Last week, Greece submitted its request for a third financial bailout package to the EU. Since June 30 of this year, creditors have cut off their assistance to Greece. Greek banks have also been closed for nearly two weeks. There were fears that Greek banks would completely run out of money, forcing the government to print its former currency, the drachma. The details of the agreement between Greece and the EU have not yet been released; however, Eurozone finance ministers had set conditions for Greece over the weekend, which included fundamental reforms in labor law, retirement, value-added tax, taxation, and privatization. Before reaching the agreement, for the first time in the history of the euro, a proposal for the temporary exit of a country from the eurozone was put on the table, a proposal made by Germany. However, French President Francois Hollande opposed Greece's temporary exit from the eurozone, stating that Paris would do everything to keep Athens in the eurozone.