The EU's 27 finance ministers — minus the UK, which is expected to leave the bloc next year — on Tuesday reached an agreement on reforms to strengthen the eurozone.
"After 16 hours of negotiations, we have a result — a good one," Olaf Scholz, Germany's finance minister, said on Twitter. "Euro reform is taking decisive steps forward."
At the core of the agreement is a plan to strengthen the 19-member monetary union's bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), in the event of a major shock to the European economy. However, debate is still ongoing regarding a eurozone budget and a common system for security savings.
Read more: France and Germany dream up ambitious EU reforms
The reforms now need to be approved by EU leaders at a summit next week in Brussels.
The EU has been discussing eurozone reform for several years, picking up steam after the Greek financial crisis of 2010. French President Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission have presented far-reaching ideas, including the establishment of an EU finance minister and the establishment of a European version of the International Monetary Fund IMF.
National governments for months have considered Macron's idea for some sort of budget capacity for the eurozone that could be used during any future financial crisis.
For years, Greece has struggled under crushing debt. From referendums on EU and IMF bailout terms to the rise of the anti-austerity left, DW explores key moments in the debt crisis and how Athens averted a eurozone exit.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/P. GiannakourisOn the heels of a global financial crisis, Greece's then-prime minister, George Papandreou, revealed in 2009 that the budget deficit was over 12 percent, double what it was previously thought. It was later revised to 15 percent, far exceeding the eurozone's 3-percent limit. The revelation prompted credit rating agencies to downgrade Greece's status, making it hard for Athens to get financial help.
In a bid to help Athens out, the EU and IMF agreed to bailout Greece in 2010. The program required austerity measures to cut the budget deficit, a move that didn't sit well with many Greeks. In response, anti-austerity protesters organized nationwide strikes and demonstrations to protest the measures and, at times, clashed with police. Mass protests took off in 2011 and continued for years.
Resentful of growing unemployment and poverty, a majority of Greeks in 2012 voted for fringe parties that opposed the bailout and the austerity measures that came with it. The first election resulted in no clear winner and set the stage for another vote. After the second election, the center-right New Democracy was tasked with forming a new government. The party was committed to the bailout.
In 2015, Greeks handed the left-wing Syriza party an anti-austerity mandate in snap elections, putting Athens on a crash course with Brussels. In June, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras controversially announced a referendum on EU bailout terms. On June 30, Greece became the first developed economy in the world to default on an IMF bailout. Athens imposed capital controls to stop capital flight.
The bailout referendum resulted in a rejection of EU terms, with 61 percent voting against a new rescue program. But that didn't stop Tsipris' government from agreeing to new terms with Brussels after Greece's then-Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis stepped down. It allowed Greece to avert an exit from the eurozone and paved the way for a new bailout program amounting to €86 million ($98 million).
As part of the 2015 bailout program, Greece adopted economic reforms, including cutting public spending and privatizing state assets. Two years later, the IMF urged Brussels to ease its bailout program terms and provide extensive debt relief, describing Greece's debt as unsustainable. In order to help Greece meets its bailout terms, Tsipras agreed to extend tax and pension reforms.
In August 2018, Greece officially exited its bailout program, with EU officials calling it the "beginning of a new chapter." EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Greeks "may not feel that their situation has yet improved much," but the EU would continue "to work with you and for you." However, with high unemployment and rampant poverty, some observers have cast doubt on the bailout's success.
dv/rc (AFP, dpa)
