Greece has appealed for tens of billions of euro in urgent help from the EU and International Monetary Fund to end its debt crisis, but Germany has warned that aid will not be automatic.
Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou this morning asked for the activation of the EU/IMF aid package, calling it 'a national need'.
The European Commission and IMF both promised to move quickly to put their plan to provide emergency loans into action, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the aid depended on Greece's producing a credible savings plan and proof that the stability of the euro was on the line.
Under the EU/IMF package, euro zone governments will contribute about €30 billion in emergency loans, with another €15 billion from the IMF. Ireland's share of the euro zone contribution will be around €450m.
Greece's finance minister George Papaconstantinou said he expected to receive the first tranche of funds from the package before May 19.
Greek borrowing costs climb again despite move
Greece has been under pressure after the cost to Greece of borrowing on international markets hit 12-year highs yesterday, hitting its efforts to cut its €300 billion debt load.
Yesterday, the EU's statistics office shocked financial markets by raising the estimate of the Greek public deficit last year again, to 13.6% of output. Credit rating agency Moody's later downgraded its rating of Greek debt and warned it could go lower.
The yield on ten-year Greek bonds hit almost 9% yesterday. It fell back to just under 8% just after the Greek PM's announcement, but rose again to 8.7% this evening. The emergency euro zone loans are to be at an interest rate of around 5%.
But news of the Greek move lifted European stock markets, which closed up around 1% this evening.
