It could take up to a decade before the Greek economy returns to normal after a massive US$170 billion bailout was approved Tuesday.
Finance ministers from Greece and 16 other countries that use the euro massaged the deal into the early morning hours, managing to squeeze additional concessions from private holders of Greek debt.
As part of the deal, Athens will ask banks and investment funds to forgive some of its C$107 billion ($143 billion) in debt. The European Central Bank and national banks in the eurozone will forgo profits on their holdings.
"What happens is that Greece must actually change its constitution to give priority to debt repayment as opposed to government services," CTV London bureau chief Tom Kennedy said in an interview Tuesday.
"It must accept the presence of EU monitors in the country to watch how Greece is handling this whole situation, so there's a certain sacrificing of sovereignty on this," he told CTV New Channel.
The country must also keep enough cash on hand to make debt payments for three months.
It was a tough package for Greece to accept but the country's leaders also knew they had no choice since it was facing a debt default on March 20, Kennedy said.
Even though it gives Greece a reprieve from financial disaster, not everyone is pleased with the accord, he said.
"There are many people in Europe who are simply fed up throwing money at Greece and believing they're throwing good money after bad," Kennedy said.
While it remains controversial in Europe, the EU believes it's bought time for the country to recover and eventually rejoin the eurozone economy.
The eurozone and International Monetary Fund will provide the money for the bailout and both hope the deal puts Greece back into a position where it can manage on its own.
But it will be a tough pill to swallow for many Greeks who have taken to the streets in the last year to protest - sometimes violently - punitive austerity measures.
"If you look at what's happened to the Greek economy, just in the last year it shrank by a little over seven per cent . . . this year it's expected to shrink by a little over four per cent," Kennedy said.
"There is tremendous hardship there and the kinds of conditions that are going to be attached to this bailout money are going to cause even more hardship, which is why there are many economists in Europe who are saying that really Greece should just be allowed to go bankrupt because it's inevitable anyway," he said.
Not everyone agrees with that dour outlook, but it's clear Greece is in for a few tough months, and even tough years ahead, Kennedy said.
"They're talking now it may be a decade before Greece manages to fully repair its economy."
But for the average Greek, the outlook in the near term is grim.
"It's going to hurt even more. The unemployment rate among young people in Greece is close to 50 per cent . . . that's just one statistic in a very dramatic situation," Kennedy said, noting in the last year the demonstrations have grown steadily worse.
"I think the only hope for the Greek government is to just present it in a way that there is light at the end of the tunnel," Kennedy said.
Whether the bailout works or not, Greece is on a long and painful road to some form of economic recovery and few will forget it was Greece that set off Europe's debt crisis two years ago.
