After more than 16 hours of talks, eurozone leaders reached a unanimous agreement Monday for a third bailout deal in five years for Greece.
Greece secured a "growth package" of €35 billion and won debt restructuring. The agreement also includes a €50 billion fund that will stay in Athens and privatize Greek assets, with €25 billion going to recapitalize Greek banks.
"If the summit had failed, Greece would have been staring into an economic abyss with its shuttered banks on the brink of collapse and the prospect of having to print a parallel currency and in time, exit the European monetary union," Reuters reports.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended the deal, just a week after Greek voters decisively rejected a similar package in a nationwide referendum, telling the press, "We averted the plan of a financial choking and banking system collapse." He added that "Grexit is a thing of the past," and that "we sent a message of dignity to all of Europe." Greece's parliament still has to vote on the deal.
Despite the long history of tense and adversarial negotiations between Greece and its European creditors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted, "I think trust can be regained."
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