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http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/nov/09/greece-battles-with-creditors-bailout-eurogroup-live

2m ago
19:17
Evening Summary: Greece gets a little more time

So, to recap...

Greece has been given until the end of the week to deliver on the outstanding measures agreed with its creditors, so new bailout funds can be handed over.

At a eurogroup meeting in Brussels today, eurozone ministers decided that Athens has not done enough to qualify for its next aid tranche.

That money, including up to €10bn to recapitalise its banking sector, won’t be released until various outstanding measures have been taken.

In particular, the eurogroup insists that Greece must bring in new rules for banks to handle non-performing loans, such as bad mortgage debts.

Alexis Tsipras’s government wants to protect poorer citizens from losing their homes - but without new foreclosure rules, Greece’s creditors won’t hand over the funds to rebuild its banks.

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem told tonight’s press conference that Greece has made “a lot of progress” towards meeting the conditions of its third bailout, agreed this summer.

But:

The next thing to do is have all the financial sector measures in place before the completion of the recapitalisation process.

Our Greek colleague, Euclid Tsakalotos, gave his commitment that this will be done.

The eurogroup has thus given Greece until the end of the week to tackle these measures around household insolvency and non-performing loans, so that aid funds can be handed over early next week.

Pierre Moscovici, EU commissioner, says that these bad loans need to be cleared up so that the Greek banking sector can return to health.

A Greek official has told Reuters that Athens is confident that these issues will be resolved in time, so that aid - including €2bn of loans for Greece - can be disbursed.

But the delay has raised fears that Greece’s 3rd bailout, hammered out this summer, could hit problems if Athens continues to struggle to meet the terms of the deal.

With a 24-hour strike scheduled for Thursday, to protest against austerity, Greece’s government is coming under more pressure...