[JURIST] The German parliament on Friday voted to move forward with negotiations for a Greek bailout. Urged by Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website] to support the bailout, 439 legislators voted in favor [NYT report] of the negotiations with 119 voting against and 40 abstaining. While some doubted [The Local report] the proposed program would actually allow Greece to stabilize enough to pay its debts, Merkel stated that it would be “grossly negligent, even irresponsible” to not try this path, and that the agreement’s alternative was “predictable chaos.” The Greek bailout would be its third in five years, and acts as an attempt to keep Greece in the eurozone. Also on Friday, the European Council [official website] approved up to €7.16 billion [Malta Today report] in short term financial assistance to Greece under the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) [materials], an EU emergency fund. The timing of the loan, which will be disbursed in two installments and have a maximum maturity of three months, will allow Greece to repay debts to the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) [official websites] which are due Monday. The ECB on Thursday raised the level of emergency funding available to Greece, a move that will allow Greek banks to reopen on Monday after being closed since June 29.

The debt crisis [BBC timeline] in Greece began in 2009 with a down-grade of a credit rating, and in the following years, has led Greece to borrow hundreds of billions of euros. Last week Greece’s parliament voted to accept [JURIST report] the economic reforms rejected by the government just one week prior. Earlier this month the country voted [JURIST report] not to accept the bailout deal offered by Europe. Earlier that week, as the country was preparing for the vote, protesters in Greece gathered [JURIST report] in the tens of thousands, holding rival rallies that drew attention to the split within the country as the referendum approached. In April nineteen eurozone creditors held a meeting [JURIST report] in Latvia to demand the completion of the economic reform program agreed to be Greece necessary to avoid a Grecian default or exit from the euro. Earlier that month the European Central Bank (ECB) expressed concerns [JURIST report] about Greece’s draft law that prohibits the government from foreclosing on primary residences where borrowers can prove total wealth requirements as ripe for unscrupulous debtors to engage in strategic defaults without repercussions. In March Greece’s parliament passed an anti-poverty bill [JURIST report] that would provide free electricity and food-stamps to low-income households.