“The bank holiday is extended to July 13”, the finance ministry said in a statement.
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In a formal letter to the European Stability Mechanism, the lender of last resort set up during the eurozone debt crisis, Tsakalotos said Greece would “immediately implement a set of measures as early as the beginning of next week”.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is using a musical metaphor to describe a seeming change of approach by the Greek government as it tries to convince creditors to lend it money soon. Unless both sides can reach an agreement by a meeting of all 28 European leaders in Brussels on Sunday, Greece will face bankruptcy, a humanitarian crisis and a painful exit from the euro.
Markets are holding up despite the apparent ultimatum, with many investors predicting a last-minute deal.
“The proposals we have made to our partners are ones that involve credible reforms with an acceptable degree of burden-sharing, which will not bring recessionary effects with it. We need to ensure the medium-term funding of our country with a development and growth program”, Tsipras told the lawmakers gathered in Strasbourg, France.
“Debt sustainability is not feasible without a haircut and I think the International Monetary Fund is correct in saying that”, Wolfgang Schaeuble told a conference in Frankfurt, before adding: “There cannot be a haircut because it would infringe the system of the European Union”.
As banks in Greece remained closed until Monday, with a daily €60withdrawl limit, the European Central Bank tightened the screws further on the Greek banking sector on Wednesday, after the Governing Council refused to increase the amount of emergency liquidity it is providing to Greek banks.
Greece was scrambling Wednesday to develop a detailed proposal to move away from the brink of financial collapse.
Tsipras’ speech followed a warning from one of the E.U.’s most senior officials that a full European Union leaders summit this Sunday marks the end of the road for guarantees of Greece’s euro membership.
Tsipras came buoyed by a triumph in last Sunday’s referendum, where an overwhelming majority of Greeks backed his call to reject the belt-tightening reforms that creditors had last proposed.
Mr Tsipras said his proposals would contain demands for a “genuine dialogue” on restructuring Greece’s huge debt load, which he said was necessary to give the country “light at the end of the tunnel”. A few called for compromise.
Tsipras and his aides are working to finalize a reform plan before a Friday deadline.
By The Associated Press on July 8, 2015.
Making Greece’s debt more sustainable would likely involve lowering the interest rates and extending the repayment dates on its bailout loans.
Tsipras vowed to continue reforms but warned about the austerity-weariness of the public.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the Greek proposals were a step in the right direction and the request was “balanced, positive”.
Pensioners wait outside the main gate of the national bank of Greece to withdraw a maximum of 120 eu …
Schaeuble, who has been skeptical of the Greek government’s commitment to reform, conceded the chance of such actions before Sunday’s European summit on the Greek crisis was “rather limited”.
“Greece has had 2 programmes already and they haven’t advanced very much”.
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Yet he made clear he had gotten the message that there wasn’t a moment to waste as deadlines for debt payments that Greece can not afford draw near. The capital controls also ban overseas money transfers, isolating Greece and its population of 11 million from foreign suppliers of everything from food to medicine.
