Greece’s creditors said to meet in Berlin to discuss plans
Top level talks were said to be taking place in Berlin on Monday evening to hammer out a proposal that would be presented to Greece as its only realistic chance of avoiding default and safeguarding its membership of the euro.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the German capital. Representatives of creditor institutions are said to be preparing to convene with them this evening to discuss a plan to resolve the deadlock over Greece, according to people familiar with the plan. They asked not to be named because the negotiations are private.
The talks are at the highest level, according to the people. They involve Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, they said. A spokesman for the ECB declined to comment on the meeting.
Talks on breaking the deadlock have taken on fresh urgency this week as the nation faces a debt repayment to the IMF on Friday. While Greece has said it can make the payment, it’s the smallest of four due to the Washington-based creditor totaling almost 1.6 billion euros ($1.78 billion) this month, just as its bailout package from the euro region expires.
With discussions in their fifth month, deadlines have come and gone with meetings, calls and summits yielding little as disagreements over pensions and labor laws persisted.
[Bloomberg]
