(Reuters) – Greece’s banking system would have collapsed within days had Athens not compromised significantly and struck a funding agreement with euro zone ministers, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Saturday.
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“The biggest threat to Greece was that their banking system would go belly up next Wednesday,” Noonan told national broadcaster RTE at his Fine Gael party’s annual conference.
“It’s the first set of discussions to ensure Greece doesn’t collapse next week. Once you get them into the safe space for the next four months, there’ll be another set of discussions which will effectively involve the negotiation of a third programme for Greece.”
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Saturday that the agreement cancelled austerity commitments made by a previous conservative-led government to the International Monetary Fund and European Union.
However Athens was forced to accept the conditional extension of the bailout and still has to deal with the troika, renamed in the deal as “the three institutions”.
Full article: Greek banks would have collapsed in days without deal – Irish finance minister (Reuters)
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