Varoufakis: Greece coming out of a memorandum-imposed isolation

The acceptance of Greece's request for a grace period until end-April - pending the approval of a list of reforms that must be submitted by Greece on Monday - was greeted as a successful combination of "logic with ideology and respect of rules with respect for democracy," by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in Brussels on Friday.

Κωνσταντίνος Σκορδούλης

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At a press conference in Brussels, Varoufakis said that the agreement for the process to be followed was a first step in a new diretion that took Greece out of its isolation in Europe after five years of suffocating memorandums agreed to by the previous government.

Any reforms Greece will introduce will not have a negative repercussion on Greece's budget, fiscal balance and its economic revival, Varoufakis said - a point agreed on with its loan partners tonight - and the future surpluses would have to agree with the real parameters of the Greek economy, rather than suffocating the market.

Greece, he said, is building a new relationship with Europe and the IMF to truly exit the crisis and reduce the debt, saying that a restructuring of the debt stood to benefit not just Greece but the International Monetary Fund (one of its lenders) as well.