Meanwhile, Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left chair Gabi Zimmer said, “it’s about time we looked into the history books and shouldered the responsibility towards people in Europe, and not engage in one-upmanship and pretend that we know it all, or have a monopoly on wisdom”.
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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.
Ultimately, the problems that lie at the heart of Greece’s mess – rampant tax avoidance, political graft, nepotism and corruption – rest at the feet of the Greeks and their past governments.
“The “no” vote in Greece’s referendum on Sunday dramatically increases the risk of a slide toward a disorderly Greek exit from the eurozone“, ratings agency Fitch said.
“I stress that there is not lots of time left”.
However, the specifics of the cuts, tax rises and reforms remain unknown for now.
The Greek finance ministry on Wednesday said in a statement that Greece’s government pledged the immediate implementation of reforms on the formal proposal tabled.
Proposals acceptable to European leaders will nearly certainly require it to stomach numerous reforms that Tsipras’s Syriza has resisted since coming to power in January, and which Greeks repudiated in their referendum.
Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said Wednesday that “this application must be comprehensive”.
Greece needs to back that up by Thursday with a detailed, cost-assessed plan on the economic measures it would take in exchange for loans.
Merkel, a key figure in five years of bailouts for Greece, notes the country is only one of 19 eurozone democracies whose views must be respected.
“We need a future-oriented, comprehensive reform program”, he said.
The European Union says it’s prepared to offer humanitarian aid if necessary.
However, it clamped down on cash flows after Greece missed its payment to the International Monetary Fund forcing Greek banks to shut and implement a daily cap of €60 ($65) on ATM withdrawals. He also indicated the European Central Bank would effectively pull the plug on its emergency liquidity measures for Greek banks if no deal is struck.
“But we are in an abnormal situation that can no longer last”, he said. “A deal absolutely must be found on Sunday because it will be too late after that and the consequences will be serious”, he told French radio, adding that “there could be riots… and chaos in the country”.
He reiterated France’s stance that keeping Greece in the eurozone was a “geopolitical issue of the highest importance”.
The pair has now been given to Thursday to get serious and come up with a reform plan.
Greece has submitted its request for a rescue deal from Europe’s bailout fund.
The government’s request is the first step in a process toward a new bailout for the debt-laden country.
Britain’s Nigel Farage of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, said, however, that the Greek crisis simply confirmed a terminal split between the economies of northern and southern Europe that made the euro and the European Union unworkable.
“‘To find fault is easy, to do better may be hard, ‘” Tusk said in a speech to European lawmakers.
“I can assure you the European Central Bank is doing all it can to facilitate a successful outcome. Let us prove him wrong”. Our inability to find agreement may lead to the bankruptcy of Greece and the insolvency of its banking system.
Speaking hours after euro zone peers, at another emergency summit in Brussels, set Greece a deadline of the end of the week to come up with convincing reform proposals, Mr Tsipras said Greeks had no choice but to demand a way out of “this impasse”.
Applause rose from leftist quarters rose when he said aid to Greece only helped out banks, not ordinary Greeks. “But it is a close call”. The Stoxx 50 index closed up 1 per cent.
James Nixon, chief European economist at Oxford Economics, said there’s “a narrow trajectory from here that sees an emboldened Greek parliament accepting the need for reform in return for a debt write-down”.
European leaders will hold a summit on Sunday to decide whether the plan is good enough.
“The final deadline ends this week”, he said.
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He assured parliament that, “in the next two or three days we have undertaken to bring forward concrete proposals in detail, and we are confident we will meet our obligations”.
