Greece prepares to vote on reforms

Ahead of Wednesday's vote, Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (pictured above) urged parliament to adopt the measures so that talks on a much-needed loans package worth 86 billion euros ($94 billion) could go ahead.

"It's extremely important to wrap up this prior actions procedure so that we can start negotiations on Friday," he said, as lawmakers began debating the bill.

The bailout legislation on the table includes changes to the civil code aimed at streamlining legal proceedings and new EU regulations to prop up failed banks. A vote is scheduled to take place around midnight local time (2100 UTC/GMT).

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is widely expected to get the package through parliament, but he'll have to rely on the support of pro-European opposition parties. Votes from the opposition allowed Tsipras to pass the first tranche of creditor-demanded reforms in a vote last week, after he lost a large chunk of support from his own left-wing Syriza party. Those measures - which included unpopular changes to Greece's taxes, pensions and labor rules - caused a mutiny within Syriza, forcing Tsipras to get rid of dissenters and reshuffle his cabinet.

Finance Minister Tsakalotos told parliament that additional reforms, such as planned pension spending cuts, would be presented to parliament for approval at a later date after "further study."

Split in Syriza

Tsipras' government has 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament, including the 13 belonging to his coalition partners from the right-wing Independent Greeks party. Last week's rebellion cut the prime minister's support to just 123 votes, and analysts have said he may have to resign if it falls below 120.

Vassiliki Georgiadis, a political science professor at Athens' Panteion University, said the controversial reforms had caused a split in the party between hard-left MPs - "some of whom have spoken of a Greek exit from the eurozone as the only solution" - and those more sympathetic to Tsipras' arguments.

She added that it would be "difficult" for the prime minister to lead if he was forced to rely on opposition MPs to get laws passed.

Tsipras' government, in power for only six months, said it hoped there would be fewer rebels in Wednesday's vote, and that it anticipated beginning bailout talks by the end of the week.

Speedy start to talks

Officials from Greece's creditors - the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) - are expected to arrive in Athens on Friday to start meetings with the government immediately. The European Union's top economy official, Pierre Moscovici, said on Wednesday that he was confident Greek lawmakers would pass the second batch of reforms.

"After months of deadlock, we are now making swift progress," he said, adding that he hoped a bailout deal could be signed by August 20 - the deadline for debt-crippled Greece to repay 3.2 billion euros owed to the ECB.

On Monday, Greece reopened its banks for the first time in three weeks, although strict limits on cash withdrawals remain in place. The country was also able to repay billions of euros it owed to the IMF and ECB after receiving emergency "bridge" funding from the EU. Greece has already received 240 billion euros in two previous bailouts in the last five years.

nm/msh (Reuters, AP, dpa)