The Eurogroup and numerous parliaments have now acceded to this wish on the basis of the existing agreements and extended the current programme by four months, but without taking on additional financial risks to begin with.
For the existing programme to be extended, the Greek government had to commit to a series of economic reforms, which now have to be spelled out and then, most importantly, also implemented. Only identifiable progress on the road to sound public finances, a competitive economic structure and a functional political system will allow Greece to regain investors’ confidence and fund itself independently.