No deal in Greek debt crisis talks yet

PanARMENIAN.Net - Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s radical prime minister, met with his eurozone creditors in Brussels on Wednesday, June 4, evening over the terms of his country remaining in the single currency, as the five-year crisis centred on debt and democracy moved towards a climax.

Tsipras joined the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, for dinner and a battle of wills over conflicting ideas for resolving Greece’s financial catastrophe, although many believe the best they are likely to agree is a fix to buy more time, the Guardian reports.

Although the meeting went well, it ended without a deal. However, there were positive expressions from participants afterwards and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said that there was more to come.

“We will continue our talks in a few days,” Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, told reporters after emerging in the early hours of Thursday morning from the meeting.

Tsipras had gone to argue for acceptance of a 47-page reform program he handed his creditors this week. Juncker was charged with presenting him with a quite different blueprint, drafted following an emergency summit of national and international leaders in Berlin on Monday.

Tsipras maintained after the meeting that the Greek proposal was the only realistic option. He said that Athens still rejected some of the creditors’ proposals but indicated that a deal was close on some of the issues and that Athens would make a payment due to the IMF on Friday.

The European commission said: “It was a good constructive meeting. Progress was made in understanding each other’s positions on the basis of various proposals. It was agreed they will meet again. Intense work will continue.”

The French president, François Hollande, and the Spanish finance minister, Luis de Guindos, said they were confident an agreement would be reached, if not on Wednesday then before Friday, when Greece is due to repay €300m to the IMF, the first of four payments this month.

Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäeuble, and Dijsselbloem voiced pessimism that a deal would be struck., according to the Guardian.

Mario Draghi, president of the ECB, said the priority need was for a strong agreement, criticising what he sees as feeble proposals from the Tsipras government since it came to power in January on a ticket to reverse eurozone-dictated austerity and recast the bailout terms.

Draghi said he would not relax the ECB ceilings allowing Greek banks to provide a lifeline by lending the government money unless the creditors are able to start disbursing the remaining loans, meaning no more mercy from the ECB unless Tsipras accepted the eurozone’s terms.