(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis). A bank message is seen on ATM’s screen in Athens, Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
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Addressing Dutch parliament, Dijsselbloem, who is also the Netherlands’ finance minister, said that the referendum referred to documents that had “no relevance” since Greece’s bailout program expired on June 30.
Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has pledged to resign if Greeks voted “Yes” in Sunday’s referendum on the country’s bailout.
The strategy was met with a cool response.
Asked by Bloomberg Television whether he would still be in office on Monday evening if Greeks voted “Yes”, Mr Varoufakis, an economics professor, said: “I will not…”
As the central bankers gathered in Frankfurt, a defiant Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged Greeks to reject an worldwide bailout deal, wrecking any prospect of repairing relations with Europe before the Sunday vote. “I personally take full responsibility for finding a solution right after the referendum”. It also has become the first developed country to fail to repay a debt to the worldwide Monetary Fund on time.
French President Francois Hollande departed from Merkel’s line, saying too much was at stake to delay work on crafting a new bailout program for Greece as the already cash-strapped country confronts empty government coffers and limited access to what personal savings citizens have left.
– Once Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, in his role as chair of the board of governors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), accepts an application from Greece, he asks the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, along with the European Central Bank (ECB) to assess it.
“This allows us to breathe”.
But Holger Schmieding, at the German bank Berenberg, said a “No” vote would mean a “very high” risk of Grexit.
Draghi, he said, had faced down “hawks” among eurozone members who had demanded that Athens increase collateral needed to receive continued assistance.
In this modest Brussels setting last Friday morning, key players in the great Greek debt drama tried to avert a meltdown that could threaten the future of the euro and even the European Union (EU).
If voters reject global bailout terms in Sunday’s vote, then “we are entering in an unknown zone, an economic slide”, Sapin warned.
European officials on Wednesday slammed the door on any further negotiations with Greece before a national referendum planned for Sunday, daring the Athens government to go ahead with a vote that holds peril for the country no matter which option Greeks choose.
“Eurogroup united in decision to wait for the outcome of the Greece referendum before any further talks”, Kazimir tweeted after a teleconference with his counterparts on Greece’s debt issue Wednesday afternoon.
“Before the referendum, no further talks on an aid programme can take place”, she said.
“We have to be clear”.
Lagarde said Greece had made progress on many hard reforms and had started to return to growth before Syriza came to power.
Greece “really desperately wants to stay in the euro, even if we are critical of the institutions in the framework of the euro,” Varoufakis said.
The developments prompted Moody’s to cut its credit rating for Greece to a deep-junk “Caa3”, warning it was now less likely that official creditors will support the country, whatever happens in Sunday’s referendum. He said it would strengthen his bargaining position.
In a positive move the ECB has for now decided to keep emergency liquidity flowing to Greece’s cash-strapped banks.
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However, up to 1,000 branches re-opened on Wednesday to allow pensioners – many of whom do not use bank cards – a one-off weekly withdrawal of up to €120.
