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2nd LD Writethru: Eurozone ministers approve Greek bailout deal

Xinhua, August 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on late Friday that the finance ministers' meeting on Greece turned out "positive" and Greece is expected to get a new loan worth up to 86 billion euros (about 95 billion U.S. dollars).

The outcome of the meeting made the weeks-long negotiation in Athens "pay off," Dijsselbloem told a press conference after an extraordinary Eurogoup meeting on Greece.

The ministers gathered here to discuss Greece's third bailout plan under the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

According to a statement released by the European Commission (EC) immediately after the meeting, the new billion-euro loans will be made available over the next three years to Greece by the ESM.

"The past six months have been difficult ... today, I am glad to say that all sides have respected their commitments," the statement cited EC President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying.

"The message of today's Eurogroup is loud and clear: on this basis, Greece is and will irreversibly remain a member of the Euro area," Juncker said.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the Commission's Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, who introduced the result of the Commission's negotiations with Greece to the Eurogroup on Friday, said "today's agreement will lift the uncertainty that has hung over the country and the euro area for too long."

"We are ready to support Greece with all our instruments -- from technical assistance to financial support," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

Earlier in the morning, the Greek parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of adopting series of new austerity measures to secure the long-awaited bailout plan.

Debt-torn Greece is facing an urgent repayment of a 3.2-billion-euro loan to the European Central Bank due on Aug. 20. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Endit