The Eurogroup welcomed the approval the agreement reached with the Greek government on the police package and also for the approval of the package by the Greek parliament. According to the Eurogroup, the new programme provides a comprehensive blueprint for putting the public finances and the economy of Greece back on a sustainable footing and hence for safeguarding financial stability in Greece and in the euro area as a whole.

The agreement reached between the Eurogroup and the Greek government on a policy package constitutes the basis for the successor programme. The main goals of this new programme is ensuring debt sustainability and restoring competiveness. In November 2011, the first quarterly report of Commission's Task Force for Greece reported that the country is moving to the fiscal consolidation but a profound structural reform need to be achieved.  This implies that Greece must achieve the ambitious but realistic fiscal consolidation targets so as to return to a primary surplus as from 2013, carry out fully the privatisation plans and implement the bold structural reform agenda, in both the labour market and product and service markets.

In order to accomplish all the commitments Greece has the intention to put in place a mechanism that allows better tracing and monitoring of the official borrowing and internally-generated funds destined to service Greece's debt by paying an amount corresponding to the coming quarter's debt service directly to a segregated account of Greece's paying agent. The Eurogroup welcomed such mechanism as well as the intention of the Greek authorities to introduce over the next two months in the Greek legal framework a provision ensuring that priority is granted to debt servicing payments.

The Eurogroup also highlighted that it is fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the Greek citizens but also underlines that further major efforts by the Greek society are needed to return the economy to a sustainable growth path. It welcomed therefore the the identification of additional structural expenditure reductions of €325 million to close the fiscal gap in 2012 and the provision of assurances by the leaders of the two coalition parties.