Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Eurozone ministers to meet again on Wednesday to reach final deal over Greek debt

Eurozone finance ministers will meet again on Wednesday in a bid to reach a final bailout deal for Greece ahead of an EU leaders' summit the following day, EU President Donald Tusk has said.

"Prime Minister (Alexis) Tsipras and the institutions will work together now so that the Eurogroup can achieve results on Wednesday evening that can be presented Thursday morning," Mr Tusk told a press conference after an emergency eurozone summit in Brussels Monday.

French President Francois Hollande said the EU and creditors were making progress with Greece on a debt bailout accord.

"We are moving towards an accord," Mr Hollande told reporters after the emergency summit on Greece.
"There is still work to be done ... every effort must be made so that when eurozone finance ministers meet Wednesday, a solution is in sight," he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is Greece's biggest creditor, was more cautious.
"I can't give any guarantee that that will happen," she said of a final agreement. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The Greek proposals include higher taxes and welfare charges and steps to curtail early retirement, but not the nominal pension and wage cuts first sought by lenders.

Mr Tsipras, elected in January on a promise to end austerity measures, also appeared to have avoided raising value added tax on electricity or loosening job protection laws.

The Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 19-country currency union had met earlier ahead of the crisis summit, but was unable to reach any deal on a new reform plan submitted by Greece overnight.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker meanwhile said he was "convinced" a final agreement would be made this week between Greece and its EU-IMF creditors after a five-month stand-off.

"I'm convinced that we will come to a final agreement in the course of this week, for the simple reason that we have to find an agreement this week," Mr Juncker said.

Greece has had to accept harsh austerity measures in return for bailout funds but the left-wing government of Mr Tsipras elected in January has balked at taking more of the harsh measures in return for the last tranche of €7.2bn from the current programme, which expires at the end of the month.

Without the money, Greece may not be able to make a €1.5bn repayment to the IMF, which is also due on 30 June, risking a default and possible chaotic exit from the eurozone..............http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0622/709652-greece/
23/6/15
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1 comment :

  1. Neues Finanzministertreffen zu Griechenland am Mittwoch...

    Die Euro-Finanzminister werden am Mittwoch erneut über Griechenland beraten. "Ich bin zuversichtlich, dass die Euro-Gruppe Ergebnisse erzielen wird", sagt Kommissionschef Juncker......welt.de

    ReplyDelete

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