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Greek Parliament President Delays Bailout Agreement Voting Procedure

konstantopoulou_voutsis_533_355Greek Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou delays the emergency voting procedure for the country’s bailout agreement by scheduling the party leaders’ meeting at 9:30 pm on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras tried to expedite the ratification of the draft deal for financial aid by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) for the implementation of the funding agreement through fast-track procedures. The draft deal was signed on Tuesday morning. However, Konstantopoulou is sticking to procedure and has scheduled the party leaders’ meeting required for starting parliament sessions for late Wednesday.
After Greece’s party leaders agree that the parliament should convene, then the draft bill will go for approval by the parliamentary committees. When the parliamentary committees approve the draft, then the plenary will convene to discuss the bill on Thursday. According to procedure, it can be voted at midnight on Thursday and the results will come out early Friday morning. On Friday, an emergency Eurogroup will convene to discuss the third Greek bailout deal.
According to a protothema.gr report, Tsipras tried to reach Konstantopoulou by phone on Tuesday, but to no avail. Tsipras then sent her a letter, asking for the immediate convergence of the plenary as the parliament is now in summer recess.
Konstantopoulou pointed to parliament regulations that say no committee meetings can take place before committee presidents meet to issue a decision for Greek Parliament to convene. However, according to parliament regulation experts, the Parliament President has the authority to call the plenary to convene without the requirement of a committee presidents’ meeting.
Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis criticized Konstantopoulou’s actions, saying that “at this point, we cannot afford to be consumed in formalities that verge on the pretext.”

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