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Agreement Reached On Greek Bailout Plan. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 12, 2015 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a tweet a moment -- seconds ago, again from Donald Tusk

Allow me to repeat it again in case you missed it. The European council president has now tweeted after more than 16 hours of negotiations in Brussels, "Euro summit has unanimously reached an agreement. All ready to go for ESM program for #Greece with serious reforms and financial support."

Now we will be looking the detail of that four-page agreement. What was -- what is in it that wasn't in it before and vice versa. For instance, we are pretty certain that the supposed temporary Grexit or time out of the euro area, we're pretty certain that's not in it.

We're pretty certain the IMF involvement is in it. We're looking to see what the privatization details will be. And of course, the really hard work that now Greece has to pass all that legislation within three days by Wednesday night.

And only then, only then will they be able to start the negotiations for the memorandum of understanding for the agreement. The noise here has now absolutely picked up in the last 5 minutes. People are walk around. They are moving around having been in a stupor for the last seven hours overnight, eight hours overnight.

Now people are running around getting ready for the press conference and the news conference that will be held. That is due to be held by Donald Tusk, the president of the council and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission. So there you have it. We have an agreement.

FOSTER: Richard, we want to update everyone on our breaking news. Eurozone officials now saying an agreement reached in the Greek bailout talks. It's been an epic process. Richard has been up all night as well. We are getting all sorts of tweets to say there has been agreement. That is a breakthrough, now waiting on those announcements.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: We don't know the range of it, as we heard from Richard there. We know that this idea, this temporary Grexit, well, the possibility that that's been removed, but the IMF element to this we understand has been in. But we don't know. We're going to wait and find out the extent, the details, the nitty gritty that will come out of this.

FOSTER: It's fascinating to watch the process unfold. Richard, you were saying we are seeing pictures from the producers over the course of the evening about how everyone was sleeping on their desks desperately waiting for something to happen. I'm not including you in that but there has been a few --

QUEST: There have and let me show you some of the papers that show you how the rest of Europe. They are out of date. They are horribly out of date, but it gives you an idea of the tone of the mood. Time and again we've been told it's been bad.

The Greece widens the gap between France and Germany, From Italy, Greece with back against the wall. As we move on, from Spain, Europe obliges Greece to make cuts in 48 hours. And perhaps from Germany, this sums up the whole issue of the last few days, Merkel, the lack of trust.

And that's what this was all about from start to finish. These negotiations have been torrid. They have been detailed. They have been brutal from those I've spoken to who have been in the room, they say the atmosphere was poisonous at times and at best, it was bad.

But they knew they had to keep going. Credibility on both sides depended upon it. Remember the European Council said that they -- Donald Tusk said this was the deadline. If they had left here without an agreement, Grexit was the only option on the table, which is why they've kept going all night.

In spite of some of the -- sometimes it was petty differences between them. Other times it was major differences, but always they kept going because Greece knows its euro membership's on the line. Its economy is on the line and its people's economic future is on the line.

For the Europeans, they know their credibility is on the line. If they had let this slip away or not got a deal or not kept to their word they would be no doubt other countries would think they too could play fast and loose with the riches.

FOSTER: Richard, we are going to stay with you because we have been told that the European Council President Donald Tusk and the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker are about to make an announcement and have some sort of press conference. We're going to sit with you on that.

CHURCH: We also go to Elinda Labropoulou who is there live in Athens. So this is quite a lot of progress here we're seeing after all of these tortured hours of negotiations.

[03:05:11] But it looks like agreement has been made. We don't know the details of that agreement, but we do understand this temporary Grexit clause had been removed. And of course whether the IMF would be party to this, we understand that is a possibility that they will be a part of this.

But Elinda, talk to us about what's being said, what reaction -- I mean, this is only just becoming -- we're only just becoming aware of this agreement. But this was the hope that we would get to this point.

ELINDA LABROPOULO, JOURNALIST: Well, for the time being the reaction in Greece has been numb from the politicians. They are waiting to see whether a deal will be reached and what it will entail. Obviously these talks ended up being a lot harsher and the terms are little harsher than most Greek politicians expected.

You know, this whole idea of a Grexit or time-out that was put on the table was not necessarily something that was even expected at any point. We have moved away from this idea altogether. But still, this was enough to silence people here for some time.

So, waiting now to see what this deal will bring and also, due to the degree of austerity that seems to carry with it, a lot of questions on whether -- how, rather, this will be taken to Greek parliament and whether these measures can actually be voted in.

Because for the time being this deal was only there in order to really begin the final talks and Greece has to first vote in these measures before we can get to the next step. Greece is also being asked to do this very quickly and to pass these very harsh austerity measures in just 48 hours.

We know that the prime minister is already facing opposition from some of his own MPs on this. We do know also he has support from the opposition overall. So it seems likely that in the end these measures will be able to go through.

But it's still very early to really know the details because it will depend on exactly what this deal entails. But for the time being the overall reaction from Greece is that the measures are extremely harsh and even if they're voted in, it will be difficult to implement them.

CHURCH: And Elinda, this has been a long and tortured journey from that referendum where the Greek people about 60 percent of them also voted no to austerity measures as if there was an opportunity to avoid this.

But all along Greece had to know -- the leadership had to know that at some point they would need to confront this. But they seemed to think at some point that they could go without those austerity measures and still get the bailout. That was the perception for a long time here.

LABROPOULOU: It was more of a question of getting some breathing space with it. Yes to maybe getting more austerity, but basically was more to do about breathing space, debt relief, a number of issues that would enable Greece to kind of build its economy again before being just having to pay more back to the creditors.

And we're not quite sure where this stands. Until we see the final deal we will not be able to see what the final package will entail for Greece because if we're looking at slow maturities, you know, a number of issues that make this more sustainable for Greece then this deal may not be as bad despite the austerity.

It's all a question of how this will pan out and how long it will take for these payments to be made. So it was always a no to more austerity, but it's very much also a question of seeing the entire package to understand what it really means.

FOSTER: What about the parliament in Athens? What sort of support will the prime minister have there? Because that could -- I don't mean to put cold water on to this deal, but it has to get through Athens if it's actually going to work, right?

LABROPOULOU: Yes, it does. Yes it does. At the moment, we have seen the support of the opposition. They have been backing the prime minister just because they know how important it is to get a deal. With the banks closed a resolution on this is needed very soon.

The main focus of all Greek parliamentarians have been on reaching a deal and being able to reopen the banks and get the economy up and running again.

[03:10:03] So for the time being we've seen support for the prime minister, but this could change once the terms of this agreement become more apparent. We have already been hearing that a number of his own parliamentarians have already said that they would not be willing to back these kind of measures in parliament again.

FOSTER: OK, Elinda, thank you very much. We are showing live pictures here of those key members of the overnight negotiating team coming out to a news conference. They are going to make the announcements any moment now.

CHURCH: Let's go back to Richard Quest, who is standing by there in Brussels. Richard, I understand you have some new information on this.

QUEST: Well, let's just talk you through who you are seeing there. You are seeing Donald Tusk, the president of the council, the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission and now the news conference is about to begin. I think we should listen in to see if it's underway.

DONALD TUSK, EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Good morning. Mr. President, dear friends, today we had only one objective, to reach an agreement. After 17 hours of negotiations, we have finally reached it. Someone can say that we have an Greek-ment.

We have agreed in principle that they are ready to start negotiations on an ESM program, which in other words means continued support for Greece. There are strict conditions to be met.

The approval of several national parliaments including the Greek parliament is now needed for negotiations on an ESM program to formally begin. Nevertheless the decision gives Greece a chance to get back on track with the support of European partners.

It also avoids the social, economic and political consequences that a negative outcome would have brought. I welcome the progress and the constructive position of Greece that helps to bring back trust among Eurozone partners. Following national procedures, the euro group will work with the institutions to swiftly take forward the negotiations. Finance ministers will also as a matter of urgency discuss how to help Greece meet her financial needs in the short term, that's all. Thank you.

I would like to thank president of the commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and Jeroen Dijsselbloem. I know how -- how dedicated you were in this process and how involved and thank you very much because without your very hard work. This today agreement would -- wouldn't be even possible. Thank you very much.

ANNOUNCER: Now Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission.

JEAN-CLAUDE JUNCKER, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT (through translator): So we have found an agreement. The agreement was laborious. It took its time, but it has been concluded. From the beginning of the so-called Greek case, the commission has repeated again and again that we would not accept any form of Grexit.

There is no Grexit and on form and substance, we are satisfied with the result that we have found. The commission has always taken the utmost care to stress one dimension of the problem, namely, that alongside the need for fiscal consolidation and the efforts to be made by Greece.

We should never forget the fact that in Greece there is a need for growth and the creation of jobs. So I'm very happy that the Greek proposal of 35 billion of support to the real Greek economy has been accepted by the European Council. Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Euro Group.

JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, EURO GROUP PRESIDENT: Thank you. We spent before spending 17 hours I think it was in the summit, we spent 14 hours in the Euro Group going through all the issues that were on the table and as my colleagues have already said, trust was a very key issue.

[03:15:10] But also we worked very hard on a lot of issues regarding the reforms of fiscal situation, the debt problems, financing needs, et cetera. We were able to agree on a lot of these issues putting in an extra effort on all sides to get Greece back on track.

We prepared a report with some big, open issues and brought that to the summit and over the course of tonight and this morning we reached agreement on those issues. You will find in the agreement some of the issues have been brought forward.

So the Greek parliament will very quickly legislate on a number of issues and we will work to bring back trust in the whole process and between the member states. Also there are very concrete agreements on where the Greek proposals have to be strengthened further on product markets, labor markets and other reforms.

And also of course we need to address the issue of financing needs and debt. And part of that agreement is that a fund will be set up which will -- assets will be transferred to this fund. The fund will monetize these assets, either by a privatizing or running the assets and trying to make money from those.

That money will be used to deal with debt and to reduce debt. Also, it will be used for the repayment of recapitalization of banks, one of the big issues we will have to deal with once the program is agreed is the program in the banks and the funds will contribute also to those recapitalization needs.

And finally on top of that, once the 25 -- approximately 25 billion that will be needed for recapitalization is repaid, the remaining funds coming from the fund will be used for 50 percent to bring down debt even more and 50 percent can be invested in Greece by the Greek government.

So that is one of the key elements to debt sustainability and let growth return to Greece and investors' confidence return to Greece. In the Euro Group we will pick up on the work. We have a Euro Group this afternoon after I try and get a few hours' sleep.

The process will be that on the Greek side now in the coming days, Tuesday, Wednesday, they will legislate both the total agreement would require approval of the Greek parliament, but also the first, let's say, prior actions, the first legislations that were outlined in the agreement.

Once that work has been done in the Greek parliament, we will have a Euro Group call, probably on Wednesday. And that will be the trigger for the other national parliaments to start their procedures. That could take place on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

I can't be very precise because national parliaments are sovereign, they decide on their own time tables. Once the national parliaments have dealt with what is then on the table, we will have a more formal decision by the Euro Group/Board of Governors of the ESM, which is a decision under Article 13.2 of the Treaty, which allows them to start the formal negotiations.

And the institutions will do the formal negotiations for us. And once that is completed and it would also have to deal with the financing needs and debt sustainability, there will be a very important moment to come to the completion of the deal.

But that is still weeks ahead because a lot of works will still have to be done. The first couple day's attention goes to the Greek parliament. When they have done the legislation on the first elements the national parliaments will go to work and hopefully we can give the mandate to the institutions to draw up the deal. I think that's enough from me.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you very much. I know open the floor for your questions. Given the many hours of intense negotiations the presidents will only take a few questions and we start with the gentleman there. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Several diplomats were briefing during the night that as regards the bridge financing there is a possibility to use the EFSM fund that this possibility is on the table. I would like to know if you can confirm this and if yes, can it be discussed already tomorrow at the meeting?

[03:20:11] And a second brief question, if I may, aren't you concerned that Greek government may not be able to pass all -- or to survive this agreement. Let's be frank, taking it into account the fact that it seems to be in total contradiction as regards to everything that they stood for until now? Thank you.

DIJSSELBLOEM: We have been asked by the summit tonight to already later on today in the Euro Group return to the issue of bridge financing. That's basically all I can say. Some of the insurance would involve all member states, but it's too early to say in which way we will go. We will look at that later today in the Euro Group.

JUNCKER (through translator): The commission we represent in the cause of today. I'm convinced that the Greek government will be able to pass through parliament all the decisions which have been taken today.

ANNOUNCER: We take one more question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning. I would like to ask you about the guarantees fund, how big it will be and what it will be comprised of. Thank you.

DIJSSELBLOEM: The size of it is targeted at 50 billion. There will be a setup of a governance bringing in experts on this field and the experts will also see what the assets can be that are best fit to -- I won't give you any examples it's not my specialty to say --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I asked where it will be based?

DIJSSELBLOEM: It will be based in Greece. Sorry. I thought you meant something else. So that will be set up and I outlined what it will be used for.

ANNOUNCER: We'll take one last question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Associated Press. Over the past few days and during the negotiations and especially since the four pages were published yesterday, you have come under increasing pressure and criticism of being far too harsh on Greece and its people. You have been accused of staging, in quote, "a coup." I just wonder whether you could react to those criticisms. Thank you.

TUSK: Who was it to?

JUNCKER (through translator): I said before the referendum that the situation would be worse after the referendum. This has proven to be true. But in this compromise because it's a compromise, there are no winners and no losers. I don't think that the Greek people has been humiliated and I don't think that the other Europeans were losing their faith. It's a typical European arrangement.

CHURCH: All right, listening there, the Euro Summit coming to a unanimous agreement. Let's listen to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and hear what she has to say in her reaction to this.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELOR (through translator): Trust has indeed been lost, but we all know that paper is obviously patient as we say. So what will be important is to implement what we have agreed on during the night.

And that the beginning of -- in the first paragraphs of this paper, we point to the fact that trust needs to be restored that all those in responsibility have to have ownership of what we have decided by way of a political decision.

We have also stated that we shall have an ESM program where Greece will seek after the current IMF program expires in spring of 2016, a -- to table a further motion and as regards continuing this program and we have also said that until the 15th of July, so-called prior actions will be carried out.

We have said that we have every confidence that these prior actions will be carried out. This is about changing the VAT rate, about changing the pension system.

[03:25:06] About changing the current form of the statistical office of Greece and restoring the ability to work on the basis of the current fiscal compact.

Then the so-called guideline or directive, rather, that enables banks to carry on their work has to be restored, and also until Wednesday and also the reform of the civil code of -- code of civil procedure.

This whole paper has to be adopted by the Greek parliament by Wednesday before we can task our parliaments to look at the matter. This will run in the following way, first the Greek parliament will decide on prior actions.

Then vote favorably on the whole paper, then the three institutions and the euro group will certify that what we have agreed on can go on as we agreed. And then we will invite the German parliament on extraordinary meeting to take the necessary votes.

We have always said this is about a three-year program. Beyond the measures agreed on in June, essential changes have to be made. For example, an a complete overhaul of the pension system a reform of the product markets, on privatization and changes in the labor market, all of that I think is clear and has been clear and is stated very clearly also in the text.

We then talked at some length about the program as such and the volume, 86 billion to 87 billion over three years. How can debt sustainability be achieved? And this can be created also through setting up a privatization fund to the tune of 50 billion euros, which would then also include the privatization of the recapitalized banks. And the revenue of this fund, which will be working under European supervision will be used in order to at least in some part redeem the debt incurred under the ESM. You improve the debt sustainability and at the same time this 50 billion fund at 2.5 percent -- sorry, 2.5 billion of this 50 billion fund will go towards direct investments.

We want to use the best possibilities available to us to privatize and we want, obviously, to get the best possible revenue out of this, these assets. We need to support, after all the program as well because there were a lot of elements of the program. But we saw in the past that when it was about implementation, there was quite considerable difficulty of realizing those programs. We then pointed to the fact that in drawing up the program and in verifying the implementation of the program, we have to come back to the normal work and procedure of the institutions so that what happens in Greece is in line with what happened in the other program countries.

So far, that has been somewhat difficult. Now, humanitarian crisis and there we want to support the Greek government in helping overcome this humanitarian crisis so that that means that the laws that were adopted at the beginning of February where it was said that these laws will be repealed again on the overall volume.

I said that we need a considerable part of that money, 25 billion for recapitalizing the banks. There can be no doubt at all that the situation has worsened considerably over the past few months and I think it has to be stated again that in the whole of Europe we see growth happening.

Last year by the end of last year, Greece also was able to generate some growth, which was lost then over the past six months.

[03:30:07] Now we dealt with that debt sustainability in the following way we came back to the statement of the Euro Group in November of 2012 and we said that the Euro Group stands ready if necessary to adopt additional measures, for example a long extension of the grace period and extension of maturities.

We will speak about this once we have the first successful evaluation of the new Greek program. We said, however, that a nominal haircut is out of the question for us.

So once the parliaments have decided, one can start working on the ESM program for the finance ministers will deal with the issue of how one can bridge the financing until the program kicks into place, you know, that the ECB is expecting repayment of 3 billion.

So the Euro Group has to deal with this. All in all the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The agreements will then hopefully be met. So there is a broad array of supports, which if they are implemented, I think offer up a possibility for Greece to return to the growth path.

But it is going to take a long time and it's going to be an arduous road that we shall travel but it is worth every effort if you come to a common agreement. The first question?

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Madame Chancellor will plan "B" remain in force in the sense of recommending Greece a time-out should this program not fly? And as regards the -- the fact that your parliamentary group seems to be very irritated, will you ask for a vote of confidence?

MERKEL (through translator): No, I will not ask for a vote of confidence. Plan "A" has been realized so we don't need a plan "b." But let me comment on the so-called plan "B." I think what was sometimes overlooked is that such a plan could only enter into force if Greece had asked for it.

So it would have been a cooperative approach and not something that we can impose on the Greek government because we always need agreement by the 19. So the evaluation runs as follows, this, too, is something that we could only have agreed on together with Greece and Greece has pointed out time and again that it wishes to remain in the euro area.

So we have had tough negotiations, tough conditions have been put in place also because to enable us to actually be convinced that such an ESM program can then be carried out. This obviously also so our parliament knows the framework in which the program will be carried out. But it will be obviously necessary for -- to have some time for the drafting of this program.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): You talked a lot about trust. Are you confident that all of that will go through the Greek parliament this week while the situation in Greece is a very tense one?

MERKEL (through translator): There is a certain amount of interest there to go through the necessary steps to make this happen. I have no reason at this point in time to have any doubts as regards the time plan, the laws that we mentioned here have apparently been prepared already. So I think that trust can be regained as of this works. Mr. Hoffman, please?

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Madame Chancellor, have I understood you correctly, the EU summit will no longer be necessary for the financing and the finance ministers will deal with this issue. And secondly, Greek ownership is not immediately recognizable here. What was the mood in the room generally? Was it irritation or was it constructive?

MERKEL (through translator): It was a business like attitude and atmosphere if you consider how long we talked. And the finance ministers will deal with the bridge financing issue. We have actually gone into the matter of handoff because of the political difficulties and ramifications.

[03:35:10] We were grateful to the finance ministers for preparing a text and there were brackets obviously, but this gave us a good structure for discussions and the details of that goes beyond our abilities as regards -- because it's a complicated issues for heads of state and governments. QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Again, a brief question on bridge financing, you have any idea how this will be carried out? Because it's not only the 3.5 billion for the ECB but probably more money will be needed?

MERKEL (through translator): What for?

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): On the trust fund.

MERKEL (through translator): For what do you need more money?

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): For the banks. Don't you need a little bit more money before that?

MERKEL (through translator): Well, obviously, it is clear that the money that is owed to the ECB has to be found, but I cannot give you any further indications. You have to ask the finance ministers who have a Euro Group meeting today and tomorrow ecofin so it's -- it's wonderful how this plays out.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): And on this trust fund until when will this be established?

MERKEL (through translator): We have set that this is to be set up and then -- there is no time frame for this -- I mean, you will probably get the papers in due course. It's an interesting structure. I can only tell you that 50 billion will be generated overtime to be used essentially to redeem this ESM debt.

So that will actually be extended over a fairly long period of time and this includes both the bank assets which are actually state-owned so they have to be recapitalized. Recapitalization costs will have to be recouped out of this fund and go directly into the --

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Madame Chancellor, if you look at what you've agreed on during the night, what sense -- has there been any sense to this referendum from a week ago and if the result of the referendum, are you confident that what was decided will not only be met with the approval of the parliament but also will be accepted by the people of Greece?

MERKEL (through translator): Well, I think what has come out of all of these different processes and I think that is something also that is guiding Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, is that the fact that the Greek population has obviously the clear will to remain a member of the euro family.

And I think all of these different processes and approaches have led to making this crystal clear and at the same time there are broad majorities to be found in the Greek parliament that have not existed in the past when it was about supporting the reform process.

I ought to mention one point in this context that I consider to be important. Apart from the trust fund or the fund which is about help in privatizing assets -- it's also important to strengthen the government by modernization of the administration. Strengthening the structure and pursuing a capacity building, rendering the whole of the administration less political and until the 20th of July or on the 20th of July there is to be a discussion with the institutions about this.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Very well, two questions. Thank you.

Madame Chancellor, two questions, one on the parliament. You said that you will invite them for a vote once the Greek parliament has actually implemented this and its vote which means you can only invite them by the middle of this week and they will meet next week?

[03:40:04] Is that the time frame and then the French finance minister (inaudible) against -- for Greece. Do you think that this is just as tough, what the Greeks now have to swallow as what the Germans had to swallow at the Treaty of Versailles?

MERKEL (through translator): I have not myself made that comparison. But I think that this is in line with the programs that we have agreed on with other countries. They talked a lot about their programs and this is nothing special with the exception perhaps of the sums involved because unfortunately because the banks due to the one proceeded over the past few weeks have been put in a worse position than before.

But other than that, this is completely in line with what we've had by way of a program, by way of other programs, also Cyprus, for example as a head of government, I cannot preempt decisions of the parliament.

We will information them very quickly at committee level and will talk to the speaker and then later on to the representatives of the parliamentary groups as to how we pursue this.

I think there is very good reason not to come back the MPs from their vacation to plenary meeting before we know that those in responsibility in Greece have part in necessary decisions when this will be then we will see.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Thank you. I would like to -- perhaps build on the question of my colleague on the Greek ownership in this paper because there hasn't really been any answer to this. Where is it and does it exist?

MERKEL (through translator): Well, it does exist because there is a very high financial requirement is there. It is also there because there is this compromise, this of not using these 50 billion exclusively for debt redemption.

But 2.5 for investment, including, actually, in addition, actually, to the investment package that Jean-Claude Juncker put on the table that we would concern with some 30 million that we also mention here.

And we will have to come back to the promises of 2012 as regards the grace periods and the maturities that too is part and parcel of that. And the earlier program this was to happen relatively late. Now it's going to be done -- it is going to be brought forward. There are a number of areas where I think we accommodated the Greek views.

QUESTION (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): No one actually -- well, perhaps, for the foreign journalists, Madame Chancellor, before this summit meeting a lot was discussed about the paper that the Germans submitted that this paper may jeopardize the Franco-German relationship and the future of Europe was at stake.

Can you tell us about this how the Franco-German cooperation was working here and whether there were certain areas where you had to accommodate Francois Hollande's views or as some say we're in a German Europe now?

MERKEL (through translator): I did not have the impression that this was true this morning. I spent a lot of hours with the French president comparable to Minsk incidentally and a lot of talks with Donald Tusk we held together also those with Alexis Tsipras and obviously we have a specific style and specific approach.

But in the end I believe together with the other 17 we were able to come to an agreement. This is what counts. After all there are a lot of very divergent issues in Europe and France played an important role but I think Germany too. Thank you very much.

FOSTER: Angela Merkel there speaking and talking about how trust has to be rebuilt with Greece at this point, but there is an agreement in place but she ruled out in Grexit or time-out in the euro for Greece.

[03:45:04] It's very interesting press conference with her, these marathon talks. Richard Quest has been involved in those marathon talks and joins us in Brussels -- Richard.

QUEST: Yes, I have to say Chancellor Merkel, an extremely impressive performance to do a press conference like that after 16, 17 hours of negotiations and to be able to just plow on through into the morning.

What she told us and what we now know let me remind you of what we know about this deal. It's multiyear. Secondly, the IMF will be involved. Thirdly, the Greek government has to push forward reforms through the Greek parliament by Wednesday if it's going to have any chance of success.

Fourthly, a fund is going to be set up, a privatization fund, a trust fund, call it what you will. It will have up to 50 billion euros of assets in it. Those assets as they are sold or privatized will be used half for bank recapitalization and a quarter for debt repayment and a quarter for growth.

It was the recapitalization fund and privatization fund that was the biggest sticking point. A short while ago, I was joined by the prime minister of Estonia and I asked him when you look at the deal because he was in the room all 17 hours, how did it go? Was it bad tempered meeting?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAAVI ROIVAS, ESTONIA PRIME MINISTER: Discussions were definitely difficult, but I would say the mood was constructive and I sensed that everybody actually wanted to reach a deal. So even though it took us a long time, but we made good progress and I think it's positive.

QUEST: Was there any moment when you thought this is not going to happen? This is going to fall apart?

ROIVAS: I would lie if I would tell it wasn't close in some parts, yes, it was.

QUEST: And countries in many ways yourself along with Finland and other countries were much harder about insisting no deal at any price.

ROIVAS: Well, it's not a question of being hard. It's a question of doing what's right for Greece, you know, to reestablish growth for Greece in order to see that the debt is real sustainable. We are here to help and this is what the lenders are doing is helping, definitely.

QUEST: Did you ever seriously think about leaving the time-out Grexit in the final agreement because it was there?

ROIVAS: Well, I'm glad we stick to plan "a." I think this is better for everyone. It will be hard to plain for many of the European countries why are we doing this again? But I think this is a very European decision. This has to be done. All alternatives were definitely worse. So now we have agreed on a road map and everything is down to the implementation.

QUEST: This has three days to legislate some complicated legislation and then you start the negotiations and you have the negotiations and in the meantime you have the bridge financing which could be up to 8 billion to 10 billion euros.

ROIVAS: Yes, that's the plan and we need prior actions before going to our parliaments to ask for additional money for helping out Greece. Well this meeting has been all about restoring trust and trust is a commodity that is renewable, but it grows slowly and we need prior actions to be sure that we can go to our people and ask for additional funds.

QUEST: But you're going to have to give the money to Greece in the next week because that's when it's got to be repaid to the ECB and the IMF. Large sums have to be paid soon.

ROIVAS: I hope the finance ministers will agree on the bridge financing. But what is really important is to have a clear agreement on the longer term sustainable plan for Greece.

QUEST: Thank you, Prime Minister. How can you assure me that we are not going to be here again in three years' time or two years' time as we have in the past?

ROIVAS: Well, we will be here, definitely, but hopefully --

QUEST: You know what I mean.

ROIVAS: I do. But I think that the Greek government knows what they have to do in order to stay the course. There really isn't any alternative.

[03:50:01] So we simply have to build trust bit by bit and there are risks, definitely. But we are working on plan "A" and we try to give Greece --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: That's the Estonian prime minister talking to me a few moments ago after the summit came to an end. Let me remind you of the key events that must take place in the next few days.

The first and overarching one is that the Greek parliament must pass in very short order a whole raft of laws including VAT reform, pension reform, civil justice reform and banking reform. That has to be passed by the end of Wednesday, July 15th.

After that, starting today, the Euro Group finance ministers -- they need to start discussing the bridge finance, several billion euros that will be needed for Greece to pay for the IMF, to the ECB and the bank of Greece.

Only once all that is sorted and settled are they going to be in any position to start the big negotiations for the $100 billion loan. So there you have it, Max. That's the way it looks at the moment.

FOSTER: OK, Richard, we're going to be back to you as you get more.

CHURCH: Yes, let's go to Elinda Labropoulou now. She who joins us from Athens with more and we understand that the Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has spoken. The big question here is will the Greek parliament approve this agreement by Wednesday? If it doesn't of course it's all off track but people are excited that at least we're in a situation where they appear to be on track. What all did Mr. Tsipras say?

LABROPOULOU: Well, Mr. Tsipras spoke about this long and tough battle that has lasted for six months. He spoke about a need for reforms and he said that these reforms are necessary for the country and for its progress. So he appeared to be confident that these measures can be voted in the Greek parliament in the next two days.

Of course, in reality everybody knows that this is going to be very tough for the prime minister. We expect that because Greece is in such a difficult position he will be able to get the measures voted in. But it will come with a big political cost for him.

We're starting to hear a number of voices from his own government saying that the measures are too harsh so there is no time to debate them properly and it's basically going to cost him some of his own MPs it seems, but for the time being he has the support of the opposition and with these measures we are likely to see also some political changes in Greece.

We have been hearing that a reshuffle is likely and now it seems this reshuffle is more likely to take place after the vote in parliament because there is not enough time between the two and we'll have to wait and see how this government will hold to see what other political changes may lay ahead.

But the important thing it seems here for Greece is really to get the banks open again, to get the economy restarted. And with what we have now, we're waiting to see whether the ECB will take this as a signal that has been required to be able to provide additional liquidity to Greece.

CHURCH: All right, Elinda Labropoulou reporting there live from Athens. She heard and listened to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talking there about this long, tough battle that these reforms are necessary. He is confident that the Greek parliament will approve this agreement on Wednesday.

FOSTER: It has been an exhausting night in Brussels, hours and hours of talks. We're going to another one with the French President Francois Hollande.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): The probability to respect the Greek people and the other nations in the Eurozone and therefore bring their positions closer. It was not a question of finding a balance but to find the appropriate path.

But also the European rules were to be met and also we had to see to it that Greece would be in the possibility to find the necessary financing and this is precisely what Greece was asking for, being in a grim economic situation so asking the institutions for a loan within the ESM treaty.

[03:55:07] In other words, come up with a third package. But also recovery measures, measures to regain stability were to be taken and it took quite some time to reach this result.

But also, this was to be seen on a very long period, to enable Greece to recover from the crisis, but also a short-term solution to put an end to the dire situation in which Greece finds itself. So liquidities have to be found.

Banks have to be helped, and it will be for the finance ministers, this evening, to find the appropriate financing mechanisms and accompany the negotiations for a new program. How did we reach these results? We took some time, all night.

I'm used to it as you may have noted but we had to devote some time to discussing every point to look into every detail, to be able to discuss everything with the Eurozone governments, Greece, and also with those who were most reluctant --

FOSTER: OK, at this point, we're going to say good-bye to our viewers in CNN U.S. but international, we're going to continue with this news conference.

HOLLANDE: -- was highly necessary if we wanted to reach a compromise. If there were no validity --

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