BRUSSELS—Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund patched together a deal in the early hours of Wednesday that clears the way for fresh loans for Greece and sets out how the country could get debt relief in the future.
The ministers, who held an 11-hour meeting in Brussels, said Greece had done what was necessary to unlock the next slice of financial aid, concluding a review of its bailout that was delayed for months. The new payouts will save Greece from defaulting on big debt redemptions to the IMF and European Central Bank in July.
“On the package of reforms Greece had committed to last summer, we now have full agreement,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who presided over the meeting of finance ministers.
Once all 19 eurozone countries have formally signed off on the new deal, Greece will get €10.3 billion ($11.48 billion) in fresh loans, starting with a €7.5 billion installment in the second half of June.
The ministers also agreed on a road map to ease Greece’s mountain of debt, moving to end a long-standing standoff with the IMF over the type and scale of relief Athens needs.
“It is an important moment for Greece after so much time,” said Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos.
Wednesday’s deal required all key parties in the negotiations to let go of some of their demands and go further on other elements than they had said was possible: Greece had to adopt more austerity than it had signed up for last summer; Germany had to promise more measures to ease Greece’s payment burden; and the IMF had to accept that the most important debt-relief measures wouldn’t be enacted until at least 2018, when Greece’s current bailout deal ends.
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