Greece defiant over EU bailout deal as vote looms

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head of the European Commission made a last-minute offer to try to persuade Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to accept a bailout deal he has rejected before a referendum on Sunday which EU partners say will be a choice of whether to stay in the euro, according to Reuters.

But Greek government sources said the leftist premier stood by his rejection of the creditors' conditions and Greece would default on a crucial repayment due to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, June 30 plunging it deeper into financial crisis.

EU and Greek government sources said Jean-Claude Juncker had offered to convene an emergency meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Tuesday to approve an aid payment to prevent Athens defaulting, if Tsipras sent a written acceptance of the terms.

He also dangled the prospect of a negotiation on debt rescheduling later this year if Athens said "yes".

The last-ditch bid from Brussels came after tens of thousands of Greeks, mobilised by Tsipras' Syriza party, demonstrated in Athens against further austerity.

Tsipras broke off negotiations with the Commission, the IMF and the European Central Bank and announced early on Saturday a referendum on the bailout terms next Sunday, giving voters just one week to debate the fundamental issues at stake.

Under Juncker's offer, Tsipras would have to send a written acceptance by Tuesday of the terms published by the EU executive on Sunday and agree to campaign in favour of the bailout in the planned July 5 referendum.

However, there was no sign that the leftist leader, elected in January on a promise to end austerity, was prepared to drop his repeated rejections of the terms, which he has branded a "humiliation" for Greece.

A Greek government official said that Athens listened with interest to what was being proposed but said: "Alexis Tsipras will vote "no" on Sunday".

European Union leaders hammered home the message that the real choice facing Greeks is whether to stay in the euro zone or return to the drachma, even though the EU has no legal way of forcing a member state to leave the single currency.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, who has been most sympathetic to Athens in the negotiations, said in a television interview: "It is a vote with consequences. If they say 'yes', we continue to negotiate ... With a 'no', we go into an unknown territory."

"For the other countries in Europe, it would be a problem but not a drama if Greece left, it wouldn't be an economic upheaval all of a sudden," Sapin said, calling Monday's losses on financial markets a simple correction of past gains.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned against turning the referendum into a personality contest between Tsipras and Juncker or German Chancellor Angela Merkel.