Eurozone gives green light to 39B euro for Greece

Eurozone countries Wednesday formally approved the first tranch of 39.4 billion euros (50.9 billion U.S. dollars) bailout funds of the second financing package for Greece, said Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker. He also explained that the first tranch would be disbursed in several installment. "Euro area member states have today formally approved the second adjustment program for Greece," said Juncker in a statement, adding that "all required national and parliamentary procedures have been finalized." According to the statement, the first wave of fund would come from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) while eurozone members are still at odds over future of EFSF once the permanent bailout funds European Stability Mechanism (ESM) comes into effect. Though everyone seems happy with the second bailout package for Greece, analysts point out that this might still not be enough. Daniel Gros, director of Centre for European Policy Studies, a famous European thinktank based in Brussels, warned that some serious problems Greece faces are still there, like over-spending of its citizens and continued outflow of funds from its banks. "Greece cannot regain access to financial markets until the current-account deficit is eliminated, and deposit flight stops," he said.