OREANDA-NEWS. A step towards solving the crisis in Greece was taken at the extraordinary Eurozone summit in Brussels after very long and serious talks. The heads of government agreed upon a roadmap detailing the reforms, cuts and deadlines that form a prerequisite for supporting Greece.

Steps in the first two stages included, for example, decreasing VAT exceptions, retirement system reform, court reform, updating of the banking laws and guaranteeing the independence of the Greek Statistics Board.

"After some serious in-depth talks, a long list of steps with specific deadlines was compiled for the Greek government to carry out before any talks of a new support programme can be considered," Rõivas said.

According to the Prime Minister, Greece will have to significantly intensify the reforms compared to what was planned earlier, and take the deteriorating economic and financial situation of the last six months and especially the last few weeks into consideration.

Roivas also said that reinstating trust towards the Greek government is a prerequisite for a possible future agreement.

"Trust is easy to lose and hard to regain. The Greek Government and Parliament have shown that they want to reach an agreement and, on the basis of that, a small first step towards rebuilding trust was taken today. Now it is up to the Greek Government and Parliament to take the next one."