The heads of all 28 European Union member states will discuss any proposal at a “decisive” summit on Sunday.
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Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party, said, however, that the Greek crisis simply confirmed a terminal split – a new “Berlin Wall” – between the economies of northern and southern Europe that made the euro and the European Union unworkable.
Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said he wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone but his team was prepared for everything.
Merkel said she expected a formal loan request from Athens on Wednesday and more detail on how Greece would cooperate to make its economy more competitive on Thursday, in order to seek the approval of the German parliament to start negotiations.
Rather than strengthening their negotiating hand, the No vote steeled the resolve of the leaders determined not to give Greece special treatment.
“The process will be swift, it will be speedy, it will begin in the next few hours with the aim of concluding until the end of the week at the latest”, Tsipras said.
Trust has also eroded between both sides after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras unexpectedly called a referendum in which six out of 10 Greeks voted to reject further austerity.
Greece has been given a deadline of five days, through to Sunday when another emergency summit of European leaders will be held, to reach an agreement.
Often such detailed plans have fallen by the wayside amid political bickering between Greece and its creditors.
“You know, there was a promise for today”. “For the Greek government it’s every time ‘manana.'”.
“I’m extremely somber about this summit”.
Greece’s eurozone partners have said they want to help the country stay in the currency club while complaining about foot-dragging by the Greek government.
China shares tanked further overnight after another 500 Shanghai listed firms said they had suspended trading their stocks publicly in an effort to insulate themselves from the meltdown. At this point, it seems, no one will be surprised – or perhaps even much concerned – if Greece misses paying the 3.5 billion euros it’s scheduled to repay to the European Central Bank on July 20.
Merkel made clear he had it the wrong way round – any kind of emergency funding could only follow a Greek commitment to a comprehensive rescue program.
Greece’s new finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos arrived at Tuesday’s meeting with handwritten notes scrawled on hotel notepaper.
“We can not exclude a black scenario if there is no agreement by Sunday”.
A letter to the ESM from Greece’s finance minister said: “We propose to immediately implement a set of measures as early as the beginning of next week including: tax reform related measures; pension related measures”. That’s something many European leaders – including Germany’s Angela Merkel – have ruled out. Greece then missed a big debt payment to the worldwide Monetary Fund, becoming the first developed economy to default to the fund.
At stake is more than just the future of Greece, a nation of 11 million that makes up just 2 percent of the euro zone’s economic output and population. ‘And for sure it will be most painful for the Greek people. Its banks have been shut for a week, and cash withdrawals have been capped.
Giorgos Kafkaris, a 77-year-old pensioner, was among Greeks standing in line to withdraw cash at an Athens ATM on Tuesday.
“Who are they? And who do they think I am?” he railed, in between fist bangs. “I hope doing better is not so hard as Plutarch once thought”.
According to Finland’s Finance Minister Alexander Stubb, the eurozone is not looking at bridge financing for Greece “at this stage”, Reuters said.
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Tsakalotos has replaced his outspoken motorbike-riding predecessor Yanis Varoufakis, who resigned on Monday in a bid to ease the rift with Athens’s creditors. The euro was little changed at $1.1016, while the benchmark Stoxx 600 index rose 0.2 per cent as of 12:56 p.m.in Brussels.
