Eurozone

Greece has the highest rate of unemployment among Eurozone member-states, according to a Eurostat report, published Tuesday. In more detail, Greece tops the list of general unemployment data (25% in May), and unemployment for people below the 25-year old threshold (a staggering 51.8%).

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras might be on the receiving end of harsh criticism on the domestic front, with former comrades accusing him and SYRIZA of treason, but he seems to be gaining more and more European allies. French President Francois Hollande praised Greek PM Alexis Tsipras for accepting the terms of the third bailout plan, in a speech to French diplomats in Paris.

Greece will receive immediately about EUR 23B, the first tranche of its third bailout programme, after eurozone finance ministers approved the disbursement on Wednesday evening, AFP reported.

The disbursement will allow the government in Athens to repay a loan instalment of EUR 3.4B to the European Central Bank on Thursday.

Another form of “Finlandization” has apparently plagued the Eurozone over the weekend and is now viewed as the main obstacle towards achieving a new bailout deal with crisis-stricken Greece, one that would avert the east Mediterranean country’s euro membership meltdown.

European Council President Donald Tusk has cancelled the summit meeting of European Union heads of government scheduled to discuss Greece on Sunday.

Tusk wrote on Twitter that only a "EuroSummit", one of leaders of Eurozone member states, will take place at 16:00 local time - when the European Council was due to begin.

(UPD-17.20) The Eurogroup meeting has concluded. Reports say Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will address the European Parliament on Wednesday. Finance Ministers are expected to talk to the media shortly.

Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, told Reuters that Europe will not abandon Greece. However, the news agency says the rest of Greece’s European partners do seem to totally agree on Varoufakis’s assessment on the their intentions regarding Greece’s fate in the Eurozone.

Greece's government "made people [in the country] imagine wrong things after last Friday's discussions," EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said.

In a press conference aired live, he has insisted Greeks deserve to know the truth about the bailout proposals put forward by lenders last week.

Eurozone members are discussing what might happen if Greece and its creditors fail to agree a reform-for-funds deal, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday.

Dombrovskis told a news conference in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius that the Greek debt talks were supposed to have been wrapped up at the end of April and that time was running out.

The ECB’s Board of Directors wants Greece to remain as a member of the Eurozone, as stated by ECB’s head economist and Executive Board member Peter Praet. Mr. Praet, however, set forth the question of “mutual trust” and implementation of pre-agreed upon measures.