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09 July 2014

EFSF approves €1 billion disbursement to Greece; Eurozone ministers review its progress


The Board of Directors of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) approved the disbursement of €1 billion to Greece on July 7th; Eurogroup finance ministers reviewed its progress.

This is the second tranche of the total €8.3 billion instalment approved by the Eurogroup following the conclusion of the fourth review mission of Greece’s macroeconomic adjustment programme. After the present disbursement, total EFSF financial assistance for Greece will reach €140.9 billion. One more tranche of €1 billion may be disbursed by the EFSF as part of this €8.3 billion instalment, conditional upon the implementation of a further set of milestones. After this is completed, €1.8 billion will remain available from the EFSF.

Klaus Regling, CEO of the EFSF said: “With the implementation of the milestones Greece continues to implement reforms necessary for the rebalancing of the economy.

Meanwhile Eurogroup finance ministers reviewed Greek progress. The Chair of the Eurogroup  Jeroen Dijsselbloem said at the press conference:

'We welcomed that Greece has achieved the first set of milestones related to the fourth review, the so-called May set of milestones This will unlock a disbursement of EUR 1 billion by the EFSF. The Greek colleague reassured us that the second set of milestones, part of that fourth review, will be completed by early August. And we called on Greece to also make swift progress with its other MoU commitments. The Troika informed us that they planned a technical mission to Athens later this week to take stock of the situation. The fifth review mission will only formally start when all the milestones of the fourth review are met. '

Greece is currently in the so-called fourth review. As part of that review, which began in 2013, Greece has already reformed its trading and planning laws and introduced a code of conduct for government ministers. The final €1bn of the fourth review is dependent on Greece opening up its pharmacies to more competition, although the reform has been held up by disagreements within Greece on how much pharmacies should be able to mark-up the cost of pharmaceuticals. But Greece’s lenders, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, appear confident that Greece will soon progress onto the fifth review

EFSF statement

Dijsselbloem Statement





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