Athens in race to draw up reforms to secure bailout extension

Greece's finance minister has pledged to work "day and night" to finalize economic reforms required to secure an extension to its international bailout. The prime minister has described the deal as a victory for Athens.

Deutsche Welle, 21 Feb 2015

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in comments broadcast on national television on Saturday that a conditional deal reached with the country's European creditors on Friday was an "important success for his new left-wing, anti-austerity government."

"Yesterday we took a decisive step, leaving austerity, the bailouts and the troika," Tsipras said. "We won a battle, not the war. The difficulties, the real difficulties ...are ahead of us."

Athens now has until Monday evening to submit a list of economic reforms deemed acceptable by the other 18 eurozone countries and the European Union to unlock up to 7.2 billion euros ($8.2 billion) still left in its 240-billion-euro bailout, funded by the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis pledged to work "day and night" to ensure that the list of reforms was in place by the Monday deadline, but speaking shortly after Friday's deal was reached, he also conceded that if they fail to satisfy Athens' creditors "this agreement is dead."

If the reforms do satisfy Greece's creditors, it will avoid a feared possible quick exit from the eurozone. However, it is rooted in the bailout agreed by the previous conservative Greek government, which introduced deep austerity measures in order to comply with the terms of the agreement - something Tsipras and his Syriza party had vowed to do away with ahead of last month's election, which swept them to victory.

On Saturday, virtually everybody but the Greek government seemed to be describing the deal reached on Friday as a major climb down by Tsipras and Varoufakis.

Greece 'needs to do its homework'

Germany, which has been among the eurozone countries that have insisted all along that Greece live up to its commitments made under the current bailout, did not appear to be softening its stance.

"The Greeks have to do their homework now," Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, told Sunday's edition of the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. "Then, an extension of the aid program can be approved by the German Bundestag."

"Greece has finally realized that it cannot turn a blind eye to reality," he said in an excerpt released before the Sunday paper hit the newsstands.

pfd/bk (AP AFP, Reuters, dpa)