The president of the European Commission says Greece’s vote to open talks on a third bailout is a good first step, but Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Athens must honour agreements on economic reform made at a recent eurozone summit.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to start negotiations at a meeting of eurozone leaders last week once he had sought parliamentary approval.
That approval came on Wednesday, paving the way for talks to start on the country’s third bailout.
“The agreement we have reached with Greece will lead to the expected results, under the assumption that the whole program we agreed upon will be implemented,” Juncker said in a press conference in Cyprus on Thursday.
Eurozone finance ministers tentatively agreed earlier to provide a seven billion euro bridge loan to Greece to help the country meet its short-term financing needs.
The loan should be approved by all EU finance ministers on Friday.