Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presents his package at the Greek parliament in Athens on Saturday
Skeptical European creditors raced yesterday to narrow differences both among themselves and with Athens, aiming to come up with a tentative agreement to stave off an immediate financial collapse in Greece that would reverberate across the continent.
Facing a self-imposed yesterday deadline, the European nations using the shared euro currency were still seeking more proof from Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that he could be fully trusted to enact wide-ranging economic reforms to safeguard Greece’s future in the common currency.
Greece has asked Europe’s bailout fund for a 53.5 billion-euro (USD59.5 billion) 3-year financial package but many officials in Brussels say the figure will have to be much higher. This would be Greece’s third bailout in five years.
Rumors of Franco-German discord over what was still expected from Greece swirled around the talks between finance ministers yesterday in Brussels. A French official, however, insisted there were no fundamental differences between President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who were among the 19 eurozone leaders meeting later yesterday for a summit in Brussels.
“There is no fear of a rift and we will find strong cohesion,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
France is considered Greece’s best friend and even helped Tsipras prepare the reform proposals that are his lifeline to international aid over the coming days or weeks. Germany, meanwhile, says Greece needs to do much more to get help or any debt relief.
Greece’s economy is in free-fall and the country faces big debt repayments in the coming weeks.
“We have lost so much time we cannot afford to lose time anymore,” Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said as he arrived for talks yesterday. “We continue to work to establish the conditions to start negotiations, which is the real target. … It is not about closing a deal.”
Yet in a sign that a dramatic Greek exit from the euro would not happen yesterday, a full summit of the European Union’s 28 leaders was cancelled. Instead, the eurozone’s 19 leaders, including Tsipras, were meeting yesterday afternoon to assess the outcome of the finance ministers’ talks and plot a further way ahead. Pan Pylas and Raf Casert, Brussels, AP
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