Despite the result of the referendum, the government of Tsipras reached an agreement on 13 July 2015 with the European authorities for a three-year-bailout with even harsher austerity conditions than the ones already rejected by voters.

Greece officially exited from the bailout programs in August 2018 (three years after the referendum) and the Tsipras government announced some social cohesion measures such as increases in pensions and aid packages for low-income groups.

[8] However, these developments have not diminished criticism levelled at the Syriza government for its U-turn and the huge economic and social cost of austerity policies it imposed.

This proposal with a list of 10 prior action items Archived 28 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine[11] was published by the commission, but withdrawn when negotiations were abandoned shortly after.

The Greek government thus asked to vote on two previous documents, titled "Reforms For The Completion Of The Current Program And Beyond" and "Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis.".

[17] On 1 July, Bloomberg reported they had found a translation mistake in the Greek version of the "Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis" part of the Institutions "unified proposal" being put to referendum.

[citation needed] The commission also objected to the approach of not choosing a referendum question reflecting the entire dimensions of the comprehensive bailout offer, which was not only about implementation of a "reform programme", but also included a €35bn investment package which it said would spur job creation along with economic growth, and included a guarantee for debt relief according to a renewal of the "November 2012 debt relief statement".

[citation needed] This would ensure—conditional on the completion of the second bailout programme under its new renegotiated terms—automatic debt relief, to the extent that the Greek debt-to-GDP ratio would be reduced to levels below 124% in 2020 and 110% in 2022.

Instead they had lowered their demand for a public budget primary surplus from the previously required 4.5%—now to be 1% in 2015 followed by a gradual increase to a level of 3.5% for 2018 and beyond—saving Greece from implementing €12bn of extra austerity measures.

[citation needed] Their request for a "wage reform", it said, was about conducting an ILO approved review and update of the current collective bargaining rights in the private sector (not removal of collective bargaining rights)—and implementation of a new approved wage scheme in which public workers were paid in future according to qualifications and performance (instead of clientele deals).

[citation needed] The claim by Juncker that there were no pension cuts in the proposal raised eyebrows, with Financial Times journalist Peter Spiegel tweeting that it was "simply not true".

[24] Other important elements of the proposals, the European Commission said, were: to implement a more efficient and independent Tax Collection Authority, opening up closed professions to competition (i.e. so that the Greek price for electricity—which is currently the most expensive in EU—would decline), and to implement a string of measures to ensure more social fairness (guaranteed minimum income scheme, making tax payments more proportionate to income, targeting extra saving cuts in public spending on areas with no adverse impact for average citizens—i.e.

[22] Further, the European Commission signaled that the referendum question, to which they would recommend a "Yes", from its viewpoint should be understood as whether or not Greece wanted to remain part of Europe and the Eurozone, which at the present state included acceptance of receiving conditional bailout help on a set of mutually negotiated and agreed terms.

They claimed the confidence effect of voting "Yes" to the settlement of such a deal, the predictability it would bring, together with the injection of liquidity into the economy from disbursements, would restore job creation and growth to the benefit of Greece.

[22] The Council of Europe stated that the Greek referendum does not meet European standards, as voters were not given a two-week period to make up their minds, as non-binding guidelines recommend.

[32][33] Advocates of a "Yes" vote, among them a grassroot movement entitled Menoume Europi (Stay in Europe) have cast the referendum as a decision on Greece remaining in the eurozone, and perhaps even the European Union.

[47] Reception by professional/societal associations in Greece: In his initial address, when prime minister Tsipras of the ruling Syriza party announced the plebiscite on 5 July, he recommended a "No" vote to the Greek people.

Three days after the referendum the government "formally asked for a three-year bailout from the Eurozone's rescue fund [on 8 July 2015] and pledged to start implementing some economic-policy overhauls" by mid-July 2015.

The Greek parliament approved the Prime Minister's request on 10 July, and the completed package was forwarded to the Eurogroup in advance of the scheduled meeting.