Agreement of the Eurozone for the payment of the aid to Greece

20^th February 2012

In the morning of 21st February the 17 euro zone Finance Ministers came to a compromise over the aid to be given to Greece. The agreement includes, public aid on the one hand - mainly in the shape of loans to a total of 130 billion euros, after a first loan plan agreed in May 2010 in support of the country to a total of 110 billion euros. On the other hand Greece's debt held by its private creditors, banks and investment funds will be cancelled. They will accept a 53.5% loss in the end - which entails greater effort on their part than was originally decided, which totalled 50%. This should lead to a reduction of the country's debt by around 100 billion euros. The 17 Finance Ministers said they were pleased with the Greek parliament's adoption of the austerity plan, the work engaged to make good the budgetary deficit of more than 300 million euros and the commitment on the part of the political parties to implement the necessary reform. They also called on the European Commission to strengthen and make its Task Force in Greece permanent.

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