Athens - A timeline of events in the Greek crisis from the July 5 referendum on austerity to the historic accord on a third bailout deal struck early on Monday...
JULY 5
* Greek voters reject terms of a bailout proposition with 61 percent voting “No”, boosting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
* Tsipras says the vote “is not a mandate of rupture with Europe, but a mandate that bolsters our negotiating strength to achieve a viable deal”.
JULY 6
* Yanis Varoufakis resigns as Greek finance minister to improve relations with eurozone creditors, and is replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos, who has been steering talks with European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors.
* The European Central Bank (ECB) maintains a crucial cash lifeline to Greek banks but with tougher conditions.
JULY 7
* Eurozone finance ministers meet in Brussels ahead of an extraordinary eurozone summit. Both end without a detailed proposal from the Greek government. Athens is given until Thursday to present a convincing programme of reforms.
* European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, who had said he is opposed to Greece withdrawing from the 19-nation eurozone, warns that such a scenario has nonetheless now been prepared “in detail”.
JULY 8
* Tsipras addresses the European Parliament, saying Greece will submit “credible” plans on Thursday, drawing a mix of boos and cheers from MEPs.
* EU President Donald Tusk warns MPs: “This is really and truly the final wake-up call for Greece and for us, our last chance.”
* Athens formally submits a request for new aid from the European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone's bailout fund, offering to start pension and tax reforms next week in return for a three-year eurozone loan.
* Greek banks, closed since June 28, will remain closed until Monday, while withdrawal limits will remain unchanged at 60 euros ($66).
* The ECB leaves its cash lifeline to Greece, known as Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), unchanged at 89 billion euros.
JULY 9
* Tusk says Greece's creditors must make a “realistic” proposal for managing its debt, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeats that she opposes a debt write-down.
* Greece submits a new bailout plan two hours before a midnight deadline.
JULY 10
* Athens details the new proposals, which closely resemble an offer put forward by Greece's international paymasters last month. Greece says it will bow to creditors' demands to discourage early retirement and seek higher health contributions from pensioners, while raising corporate, luxury and shipping tax.
* Greece also pledges to raise sales tax revenue, sell the state's remaining shares in telecoms giant OTE and privatise the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki by October.
JULY 11
* A meeting of eurozone finance ministers ends with deep divisions about whether to trust Tsipras with a third bailout worth more than 80 billion euros ($89 billion). A German finance ministry document says Berlin wants many more concrete commitments from Greece, failing which Greece should leave the eurozone for five years until it puts its economic house in order, even though current rules appear to rule out such an option.
JULY 12
* The EU cancels a full 28-nation summit to decide whether Greece should stay in the euro. Instead, at a eurozone summit, Germany's fiscal hawks face off against doves led by France with Athens facing demands to push through new reform laws next week.
JULY 13
* Greece reaches a third bailout deal with the eurozone after 17 hours of gruelling negotiations. Tsipras agrees to tough reforms in return for a three-year bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($96 billion).
AFP