Reuters reported that the finance ministers remain unconvinced on Athens’ promise to repay debts and implement harsher austerity measures.
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The deal Greece proposed to its creditors on Thursday amounted to a cap-in-hand capitulation. Traditionally, eurozone ministers agree by mutual consensus, though in exceptional circumstances a unanimous vote may not be needed. Last week, the global Monetary Fund said a restructuring was necessary for Greece. “If we have draft bills and if we have the prospect of a vote in the Greek parliament, there will be confidence”. The economy is in freefall and the country faces a raft of big debt repayments.
The finance ministers meeting in Brussels reportedly were working toward drafting a statement that could call for Greece to begin legislating reforms as early as this week, AFP reported.
Schaeuble was clear in who he blamed for the current crisis. Emerging optimism about Greece had been “destroyed in an incredible way in the last few months” since Tsipras won power, he said.
The assessment of the Greek proposals made by institutions of global creditors under Article 13 of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) treaty has been received by Eurogroup, Michel Reijns tweeted.
Greece has not yet said how much money it wants in its third bailout since 2010.
So there you have it. The June proposal from the Europeans may have been OK two weeks ago, but it’s now past its sell-by date.
Talks aimed at preventing Greece from leaving the eurozone and collapsing into bankruptcy are on a knife-edge amid widespread scepticism from the country’s creditors about whether Athens can deliver on its promises. Relations between Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister until last week, and many of his peers in the eurozone were particularly frosty.
“The issue of credibility and trust was discussed and also, of course, the financial issues”, he said.
The crucial meeting was widely seen as a “decisive moment” for Greece’s fate: either a bailout deal or Greece’s exit from the European common currency zone.
His Italian counterpart Pier Carlo Padoan said the sides were not yet on the cusp of a final deal.
If the Greek legislators thought they had done enough by approving the tough austerity proposals of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, they had better think again.
But Berlin and others are keeping an open mind.
French government experts have been advising the Greek government in recent days as it tries to secure a deal with creditors to stave off financial disaster.
The European Union also said it was “relatively unlikely” it would get the green light Sunday to start talks for a new bailout for cash-strapped Greece.
Should a deal fall through, The Telegraph reports the German government has prepared to negotiate a temporary five-year euro exit, giving the country humanitarian aid while it makes the transition.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo). Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, center, gestures as he speaks with Belgium’s Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt, second left, and other colleagues during a meeting of eurozone finance ministers at the EU Lex bui…
The proposal had been coordinated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, sources told dpa on condition of anonymity.
Tsipras said that the legislature “has given the government a strong mandate to complete the negotiation, ” adding that “what matters now is the positive outcome”. “What guarantees can Greece give that what is now on the table will also be implemented?” “Now we need to build trust”.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of top creditor Germany and a stickler for the EU’s fiscal rules, said negotiations would be “exceptionally difficult”. “There must be reform, solid reform and they have to be put in place quickly, he said”.
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Greece’s negotiators head to Brussels on Saturday armed with their reform proposals and parliamentary backing to seek a third bailout, but with the shadow of severe dissent from governing lawmakers hanging over them.
