Greek government submits bill outlining reforms to parliament

The Greek government submitted to parliament on Tuesday a bill containing fresh reforms to be undertaken by Athens in exchange for a new tranche of bailout loans. The bill, which was posted on the parliament's website, contained 109 articles including those detailing the redeployment of civil servants, which has sparked widespread protests. Greece has committed to carrying out the reforms in exchange for about 6.8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in fresh bailout funds from the troika of international creditors -- the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The Europeans have agreed to pay out some 4.0 billion euros of that sum "in the coming weeks" and a further 1.0 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in October. The remainder is to come from the IMF. Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has reportedly said that parliament has to approve the bill by July 19 in order for the heavily indebted country to receive the first instalment of the rescue funds. Greece needs to redeem bonds worth 6.6 billion euros by mid-August. But the latest batch of reforms are deeply unpopular, with Greek municipal workers manifesting their anger by going on strike for a second day on Tuesday. Among the most contentious reforms are plans to redeploy thousands of civil servants -- some 4,200 of them would have to be moved to other parts of the country's vast bureaucracy by the end of July.