BRUSSELS (AMNA/M.Spinthourakis/Maria Aroni) — “A new day has dawned for Greece,” Prime Minister George Papandreou said early Thursday, commenting on the decisions taken by an EU Summit in Brussels late Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in the early morning hours after completion of an EU leaders’ marathon meeting, the Greek premier said that the decisions taken by the summit would lift a big part of past burdens and stressed that if the Greek government had not acted as it had the country would have been bankrupt. “We avoided this danger,” Papandreou said, adding that this happened mainly because of the sacrifices made by the Greek citizens.

“We are permanently closing the country’s accounts with the past and entering a new course with development characteristics and with no uncertainties,” the Prime Minister said. He noted that the new decisions improved the agreements of the July 21st eurozone summit and said that the country has covered its borrowing needs up until 2014, while the new agreement provides lower interest rates, an extended period of loan repayment and a grace period.

Papandreou said the new agreement will boost the capital adequacy rates and liquidity of the Greek banking system and underlined that deposits in Greek banks were completely safe. He added that a large part of the debt burden was now transferred to banks. This deal ensures that the Greek public debt will shrink to 120 pct of GDP by 2020, making the debt sustainable.

He added that Greece will achieve a primary surplus in 2012, while the country will enjoy lower interest payments in the same year.

“We did our patriotic duty,” the Prime Minister said, adding that the road was slowly opening to take the country out of European monitoring.

Papandreou reassured Greek citizens that there was no issue of suffering a decline in their social insurance levels, while he did not rule out the possibility that a large section of Greek banks would be placed under state control, although he noted that this could be temporary.

Lowering the debt burden creates the necessary preconditions to boost development in Greece, Papandreou said. Commenting on the stronger presence of troika representatives in Greece, Papandreou said that the government has the chief responsibility of implementing its economic program, stressing that an end must be put “to this show happening every three months”.

Prime Minister George Papandreou paid a visit to President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Thursday in order to brief him on the outcome of the European Union summit in Brussels and the decisions taken for a 50 percent haircut of Greek debt.

The prime minister stressed that this was a very significant result for the Greek people, which will “reduce the burden that the people, the middle class, the citizens of the country have been carrying in recent years”.

He also stressed that this was a great opportunity for a new start, allowing Greece to look to the future with hope and without these burdens, entering a new course toward growth.

Papandreou expressed hope that the new “historic” decisions taken by the EU would be sufficient to calm down the markets, as well as the attacks and speculation against the euro.

“Greece’s weapon in the negotiations was the sacrifices and efforts of the Greek people, which are now recognised by the entire world,” he said, adding that more and more people wanted to contribute to the country’s great effort to change.

“It is time, therefore, for all of us to get back to work on the next phase, which is precisely these great changes that will lay the foundations for a different Greece,” he underlined.

EU Summit Statement

references to Greece

Wide mention was made on Greece in a Statement issued after the marathon EU summit in Brussels, that ended in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday. Below are the paragraphs of the Statement that specificall pertain to Greece. The full text of the Statement can be found on the webpage http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/125644.pdf.

9. We welcome the decision by the Eurogroup on the disbursement of the 6th tranche of the EUIMF support programme for Greece. We look forward to the conclusion of a sustainable and credible new EU-IMF multiannual programme by the end of the year.

10. The mechanisms for the monitoring of implementation of the Greek programme must be strengthened, as requested by the Greek government. The ownership of the programme is Greek and its implementation is the responsibility of the Greek authorities. In the context of the new programme, the Commission, in cooperation with the other Troika partners, will establish for the duration of the programme a monitoring capacity on the ground, including with the involvement of national experts, to work in close and continuous cooperation with the Greek government and the Troika to advise and offer assistance in order to ensure the timely and full implementation of the reforms. It will assist the Troika in assessing the conformity of measures which will be taken by the Greek government within the commitments of the programme. This new role will be laid down in the Memorandum of Understanding. To facilitate the efficient use of the sizeable official loans for the recapitalization of Greek banks, the governance of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) will be strengthened in agreement with the Greek government and the Troika.

11. We fully support the Task Force on technical assistance set up by the Commission.

12. The Private Sector Involvement (PSI) has a vital role in establishing the sustainability of the Greek debt. Therefore we welcome the current discussion between Greece and its private investors to find a solution for a deeper PSI. Together with an ambitious reform programme for the Greek economy, the PSI should secure the decline of the Greek debt to GDP ratio with an objective of reaching 120% by 2020. To this end we invite Greece, private investors and all parties concerned to develop a voluntary bond exchange with a nominal discount of 50% on notional Greek debt held by private investors. The Euro zone Member States would contribute to the PSI package up to 30 bn euro. On that basis, the official sector stands ready to provide additional programme financing of up to 100 bn euro until 2014, including the required recapitalisation of Greek banks. The new programme should be agreed by the end of 2011 and the exchange of bonds should be implemented at the beginning of 2012. We call on the IMF to continue to contribute to the financing of the new Greek programme.

13. Greece commits future cash flows from project Helios or other privatisation revenue in excess of those already included in the adjustment programme to further reduce indebtedness of the Hellenic Republic by up to 15 billion euros with the aim of restoring the lending capacity of the EFSF.

14. Credit enhancement will be provided to underpin the quality of collateral so as to allow its continued use for access to Eurosystem liquidity operations by Greek banks.

15. As far as our general approach to private sector involvement in the euro area is concerned, we reiterate our decision taken on 21 July 2011 that Greece requires an exceptional and unique solution.

Finmin: Haircut makes

Greece’s debt sustainable (

The decisions taken by European Union leaders early on Thursday have ensured that Greece’s debt will be sustainable in the long term, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos stressed in a press conference concerning the EU summit’s results.

He noted that this had simultaneously guaranteed both the liquidity of Greece’s banking system and its recapitalisation for the benefit of the country’s economy and the protection of bank deposits.

The minister said that the goal was for Greece’s debt to be at 120 percent of GDP in 2020 and fully sustainable, even based on the strict criteria applied by the International Monetary Fund.

Venizelos pointed out that, without the decision for a debt haircut, Greece’s public debt would have soared to 173 percent of GDP by the year 2020. As a result of the decision, the reduction of debt would amount to 53 percentage points of GDP.

He was categoric in stressing that there would be no new measures or sacrifices demanded of the Greek people, since all the necessary economic measures for 2011 and 2012 had already been passed by Parliament – a decisive factor for the outcome of the overnight negotiations at the EU.

GREEK MARKET

The Athens Stock Exchange – in line with other European markets – welcomed the decisions taken at an EU Summit over resolving the Greek and Eurozone debt crisis on Thursday. Buying activity focused on bank shares as investors were encouraged by market expectations that a recapitalization of banks will be made through preferred and not ordinary shares.

The composite index of the market jumped 4.82 pct to end at 811.11 points, off the day’s highs, surpassing the 800 level for the first time in 19 sessions. Turnover rose to 89.851 million euros. The Big Cap index ended 5.15 pct higher, the Mid Cap index rose 5.79 pct and the Small Cap index rose 4.24 pct.

Titan (2.14 pct) was the only blue chip stock to end lower, while OTE (11.94 pct), Hellenic Postbank (10.24 pct), OPAP (8.48 pct), Eurobank (7.04 pct) and National Bank (6.11 pct) moved higher

The Construction sector was the only one to end lower (-0.68 pct), while Telecoms (11.94 pct), Travel (8.30 pct), Financial Services (7.19 pct) and Banks (5.44 pct) scored the biggest percentage gains of the day.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 136 to 37 with another 21 issues unchanged. Sfakianakis (30 pct), Ideal (29.17 pct), Boutaris (25 pct) were top gainers, while Nakas (29.18 pct), Spider (23.02 pct) and Moda Bagno (18.24 pct) were top losers.