“In this compromise, there are no winners and no losers,” Juncker said. “I don’t think the Greek people have been humiliated, nor that the other Europeans have lost face. It is a typical European arrangement.”
Tsipras himself, elected five months ago to end five years of suffocating austerity, said he had “fought a tough battle” and “averted the plan for financial strangulation”.
CONDITIONAL AGREEMENT
Greece won conditional agreement to receive a possible 86 billion euros (61 billion pounds) over three years. As part of the deal, euro zone finance ministers will discuss on Monday how to keep Greece financed during the time it will need to agree a bailout, but none of the options appear easy, officials said.
Athens must meet a tight timetable for enacting unpopular reforms of value added tax, pensions, budget cuts, bankruptcy rules and an EU banking law that could be used to make big depositors take losses.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could recommend “with full confidence” that the Bundestag authorise the opening of loan negotiations once the Greek parliament has approved the entire programme and passed the first laws.
The Bundestag is due to vote on Greece on Friday.
Tsipras returned to Athens on Monday and was expected to meet aides and coalition partners. Facing a Wednesday deadline, he can put all the required measures in one parliamentary bill.
Merkel’s allies meanwhile defended the deal, with her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, saying Europe had won and Germany “was part of the solution — from the beginning until the end!”
But in Greece, relief was mixed with anger at Germany. “Listen, it is some sort of victory but it is a pyrrhic victory because the measures are very strict,” Marianna, 73, told Reuters.
Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Greece had been “humiliated” – mostly as a result of its refusal to take an offer made to it two weeks ago.
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