Greece’s parliament approved a second set of austerity measures into laws on Thursday; a requirement for the country to receive a bailout deal by its creditors.
Greece moved closer to seal a new bailout deal, the third one, with the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, the Greek parliament ratified a second set of prior actions that the Greek government had agreed to legislate to secure the 86 billion euro European Stability Mechanism cash-for-reforms deal.
The Greek Prime Minister noted that his negotiating team may have not achieved what he wanted, but Greece’s negotiations with Europe are changing the continent.
He said that a battle for Europe’s future has just started between the conservative powers and the more progressive ones.
“The conservative powers of Europe won the fight against Greece and the Greek people, but they lost something very valuable, the sense of hegemony in the continent,” said PM Tsipras in his speech asking Greek MPs to vote in favor of the bill.
After multiple hours of discussion, 230 Greek parliament members voted yes to the proposed bill, 63 rejected it, 3 abstained, and 2 were absent.
The prior actions that the Greek parliament ratified include changes in Greece’s Code of Civil Procedure as well as the adoption of the European Union‘s Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD).
Earlier in the day the changes in the Code of Civil Procedures caused some controversy as Greek Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos openly admitted that he disagrees, to some extent, with the proposed legislation and Greek Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou denounced the changes altogether.
The Greek parliament will reportedly vote on a third set of prior actions on August 5.
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