German parliament to vote on Greek aid next week

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras speaks to the lawmakers prior to a voting on the 2013 budget law at the Greek Parliament in Athens, Greece, Nov. 11, 2012.(Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

German parliament will vote on the release of the next aid tranche for Greece, a senior lawmaker said Tuesday, adding that he is optimistic of its approval.

"We want to do this in next week's sessions," said Michael Grosse-Broemer, leader of Merkel's conservatives in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

He said he was optimistic that the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) parliamentary group and its coalition partner Free Democrats would form a majority and thus enable the government to approve the payments of Greece's second international aid package.

Eurozone finance ministers meet on Tuesday in Brussels to hammer out a final agreement to clear the way for its next aid tranche. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will brief the parliamentary leaders Wednesday on the results of the meeting.

Greece has been dependent on international bailout aid on condition of drastic austerity measures, including pay cuts and higher retirement ages. It needs to gain access 31.5 billion euros or 40.2 billion dollars, in loans from a second EU-IMF bailout program that has been held up for several months.

In addition, further aid scheduled to be disbursed later this year make the total amount of aid reach 44 billion euros. Schaeuble has proposed bundling the overdue payments and next aid tranche together.

Last week, German central bank chief Jens Weidmann said Greece may need another debt write-off to regain access to capital markets, but only after it implements its reform pledges.

However, he argued that another debt write-off would not solve Greece's problems and only make sense as a reward for Greece's completing reforms that would put the country's finances on a sustainable basis.