OECD

Bulgaria is among countries doing little or no effort to combat foreign bribery, a Transparency International report shows.

In its Progress Report 2015: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Convention on Combating Foreign Bribery [PDF], the organization says cross-border bribery "has enormous negative consequences for the populations of affected countries".

Read the Friday Eurogroup statement released after an agreement approving the 3rd bailout for Greece was reached in Brussels, Friday:

Thirty five new reforms need to be locked in the framework of an agreement for the new Memorandum according to a draft bill brought to light by Greece’s daily Kathimerini.

The catalogue of draft legislation covered in 60 pages will need to be ratified by Greek Parliament in 24 hours. The same text includes another 23 measures that will need to be implemented by October.

Efthymos Kapantais, president of the Hellenic Medical Association for Obesity (HMAO), told daily newspaper Kathimerini this week that many Greek people are being “forced to eat low-cost foods, which are often foods of low nutritional value”. This has led to extremely high rates of obesity, particularly among children.

One of the unfortunate things that the Greek economic crisis has revealed is that the underlying ethnic stereotyping between the peoples of Europe is well and alive. The Greeks are those ‘lazy’, ‘ouzo-drinking’ ‘profligate’ people who want to live off the hardworking Germans’ money for free.

The latest news from Brussels includes a WSJ dispatch claiming that a German proposal, eyeing a five-year exit by Greece from the eurozone, may be included in a Eurogroup draft.

With a EU28 summit on Sunday now cancelled, all eyes are on a Eurozone summit, meaning national leaders and not finance ministers.

Greece: Prior Actions

Policy Commitments and Actions to be taken in consultation with EC/ECB/IMF staff:

1. 2015 supplementary budget and 2016-19 MTFS[1]

Romania and Croatia are two of the worst governed countries in Europe according to a new study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Sustainable Governance Indicators project.

The platform surveyed 41 European and OECD countries in six sectors: economic, social and environmental policies, quality of democracy, executive capacity and executive accountability.

Greece and its international creditors have 72 hours to resolve their differences, with the likelihood of a default seeming more likely as the tock ticks on. Eyes are now turned to European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi and the central bank meeting on Wednesday that will decide whether funding for Greek banks will continue through European Liquidity Assistance (ELA).

The latest information out of negotiations in Brussels, according to Proto Thema sources, refers to a nine-month extension of the Greek bailout package worth 20 billion euros, while “haggling” is apparently continuing over creditors’ demands for pension reforms and higher tax rates.