Athens to get 7 bln euros in bridge funding from EFSM
Greece is desperate for immediate financial assistance and the only solution on the table is for bridge funding of 7 billion euros in the next three months through the European Financial Stability Mechanism that involves all 28 European Union member-states.
The final decision on that will be ratified in Thursday’s Eurogroup conference call, which will also authorize the eurozone finance ministers who need parliamentary approval to begin that process in their national chambers so as to have it all completed by the end of the week.
The EFSM decision was made despite Britain’s opposition at Tuesday’s ECOFIN meeting of EU economy and finance ministers. A European official said the British resistance ended when it was proposed that eurozone central banks’ profits from Greek bonds could be used as collateral worth 3.4 billion euros.