Greece's creditors will head to Athens shortly to open talks on a huge new international bailout, the government said today, as parliament approved a second batch of reforms needed for negotiations to go ahead.
Greece's finance ministry said representatives from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, from whom it is seeking a third bailout worth up to 86 billion euros (USD 93 billion) over three years, were likely to fly in tomorrow.
The mission chiefs from the three institutions - the so- called "troika" - are among the negotiators heading to Athens, the ministry said, in their first such trip for over a year.
But a European source said it was not yet confirmed that Friday would see the start of talks, adding that "only a few people" at most would fly in before the weekend. "Our people haven't bought their airline tickets yet," the source said.
Greece and its creditors last week struck a bailout-for- reforms deal aimed at preventing Athens from crashing out of the eurozone as it struggles to pay its enormous debts.
As dawn neared, the Greek parliament passed legislation on changes to the civil justice system, a bank deposit protection scheme and measures to shore up liquidity of Greece's banks - reforms demanded by the creditors before talks can go ahead.
EU Commission spokeswoman Meena Andreeva pronounced the troika satisfied with the vote, saying the reforms had been made law in a "timely and overall satisfactory manner".
The bill passed by a resounding 230 votes out of the 298 members of parliament present, after a marathon five-hour debate that nonetheless exposed deep divisions in the governing Syriza party over whether to accept more austerity.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras suffered his second major mutiny in a week, with 36 Syriza MPs defying him to vote against the bill or abstain.
A week earlier, 39 of his lawmakers had opposed a first bill linked to the bailout, which approved sweeping changes to Greece's taxes, pensions and labour rules. In both cases, Tsipras was forced to rely on opposition parties to get the legislation passed.
While the 40-year-old premier is riding high in the opinion polls, some analysts believe the split within Syriza could force him to call early elections. Syriza blazed to power on an anti-austerity ticket just six months ago.
Government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili admitted the government was facing a "political problem" and said "planned procedures" would be implemented to address it.
"The divide in the parliamentary majority is clear," she told reporters after the vote.
Greece and its creditors are under huge pressure to finalise the terms of the rescue before August 20, when Athens owes the ECB a loan repayment of 3.2 billion euros it cannot afford.
