Greece’s stock market remains closed since last week amid the bank closures.
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Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt, for his part, accused Tsipras of engaging in the same kind of clientelism that has plagued the country for decades.
The price of those loans was five years of austerity measures, and in Sunday’s Greek referendum voters overwhelmingly rejected more belt-tightening required by the creditors.
Getting a new rescue deal for Greece is urgent and becoming more so by the day.
According to the letter sent to the European Stability Mechanism, Athens said it would “immediately implement a set of measures as early as the beginning of next week”.
France, he said, is listening to those countries that accept the idea of a Greek exit from the euro but that it’s important for his country “to facilitate, and above all keep a broad perspective” on the fact that the idea of European unity is also at stake.
“As much as we may be annoyed with the Greek government, we can’t let people there suffer”.
Some MEPs displayed placards in sympathy with the Greek people. Investors consider the Japanese currency a safe-haven when global market risk is high, and it has recently benefited from an implosion in Chinese stocks and the uncertainty surrounding Greece’s future in the eurozone. More importantly, Athens is due to submit its reform proposals by midnight tonight outlining tax-reform and pension measures. He did however criticise attempts to “terrorise” Greeks into voting for “never-ending austerity”.
“He said that for decades corruption and a “politico-economic nexus” had been given a free hand – and that his government was committed to ending that”.
Merkel said if Athens came up with satisfactory proposals and took “prior actions” by passing laws to convince creditors of its intent, short-term financing could be made available to help Greece over a repayment hump this summer.
Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said Wednesday that “this application must be comprehensive”. European relief to Greece since 2010 has flowed not primarily to Greek citizens, but to the banks it owes money – particularly in Germany and France. Yet an image has been created that Greece had not made any proposals.
Christian Noyer told Europe-1 radio that the European Central Bank has been supporting Greek banks for months, but that there is a limit to its support. Greece has entered a state of economic emergency.
“We still do not have the basis for negotiations”, she said at the summit.
The eurozone’s top official, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that the pressure was on Greece to present an acceptable deal, since its position was increasingly dire financially.
And European officials involved in negotiations with Greece appear to have little patience for American policy prescriptions that do not include financial commitments. 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.
The closures, which have been extended through Monday, have led to daily lines at ATM machines and have hammered businesses.
The Greek leader’s speech prompted a mixed response from European lawmakers.
Experts say Greece could soon be forced to print its own currency and ditch the euro if leaders can’t agree on a new rescue package.
In a tweet, he added that if a deal can’t be brokered this week, “Everyone will lose”.
Speaking at a party meeting, Meimarakis called for Tsipras to address parliament on his return from Brussels, where he is trying to work out a deal with Greece’s creditors.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann warned, however, that if there were no deal on Sunday, euro zone governments would have to prepare “Plan B” – code for Greece losing all access to euros and so finding itself excluded from the currency area.
In ideal circumstances, a summit of all 28 European Union leaders would be able to approve it on Sunday.
European Council President Donald Tusk stated: “Until now, I have avoided talking about deadlines, but tonight I have to say loud and clear that the final deadline ends this week”. 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.
Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he wanted a “socially just and economically viable agreement“. Greece is scrambling to develop a detailed proposal to move away from the brink of financial collapse.
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“This is really and truly the final wake-up call for Greece and for us, our last chance”, he said, warning that failure “may lead to the bankruptcy of Greece” and cause geopolitical problems for Europe.
