According to Reuters News Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will hand in his resignation later on Thursday, today, and propose early elections be held on Sept. 20, government officials said. Tsipras was elected only in January but has suffered a rebellion among hard left lawmakers in his Syriza party and had to rely on opposition support to win parliamentary approval for Greece's new 86 billion euro bailout deal. - According to the constitution, if a government resigns within a year of...

20 August 2015 -- The European Commission signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Greece for a new stability support programme late on Wednesday. The European Stability Mechanism (ESM), Europe's firewall established in 2012 in response to the global financial crisis, will be able to disburse up to EUR 86 billion in loans over the next three years, provided that Greek authorities implement reforms to address fundamental economic and social challenges, as specified in the MoU. Following months of intense...

The EU Commission is aiming to present a new, more ambitious circular economy strategy late in 2015, to transform Europe into a more competitive resource-efficient economy, addressing a range of economic sectors, including waste. The strategy will be fully aligned with the priorities of the new Commission. It will comprise a revised legislative proposal on waste and a Communication setting out an action plan on the circular economy for the rest of this Commission’s term of office. The action...

Good evening and welcome to this press conference. We have just finished the Eurogroup meeting and we've come to a positive conclusion on the proposals by the institutions. All the intense work of the last week has paid off and let me here also extend my thanks to the teams of the institutions and the team of the Greek government that had worked so hard these last months to reach an agreement. We also have reached agreement at the...

The first estimate for euro area (EA19) exports of goods to the rest of the world in June 2015 was €182.7 billion, an increase of 12% compared with June 2014 (€162.7 bn). Imports from the rest of the world stood at €156.4 bn, a rise of 7% compared with June 2014 (€146.7 bn). As a result, the euro area recorded a €26.4 bn surplus in trade in goods with the rest of the world in June 2015, compared with +€16.0...

On 14 August 2015, the Eurogroup issued a statement welcoming the agreement reached between Greece and the European institutions, with input from the IMF, on the policy conditionality underlying the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM) programme for Greece. The ESM financial assistance facility agreement will cover an amount of up to €86 billion. This includes a buffer of up to €25 billion for the banking sector in order to address potential bank recapitalisation and resolution costs. The Eurogroup considers that the necessary...

Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made the following statement today: “The policy package specified in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently agreed between the Greek authorities and European institutions, with input from Fund staff, is a very important step forward. It not only reverses much of the policy backtracking that caused the previous program to run seriously off track, but puts in place wide-ranging policies to restore fiscal sustainability, financial sector stability, and a...