Greece gives new reform plan to creditors [Update]
Greece has submitted a promised reform plan to its EU-IMF creditors, a day before Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to discuss how to end Athens’s debt crisis with the French and German leaders, European sources told AFP Tuesday.
Creditors “are now in the process of studying” the list of “counter-proposals,” which arrived two days after European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker complained Tsipras had not fulfilled a pledge made at a meeting last week to send Brussels the plans, one source said AFP.
Another source said one of the major counter-proposals was an idea first floated by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufalks to take debt owed to the hardline European Central Bank and transfer it to the eurozone’s crisis-fighting fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which is widely perceived as softer.
Tsipras warned earlier Tuesday that a failure to reach a deal on Greece’s bailout — which is due to expire at the end of June leaving cash-strapped Athens with no protection against a looming default – would be the beginning of the end for the eurozone.
The Greek premier has sought a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit in Brussels on Wednesday.
The EU’s Juncker presented Tsipras with the creditors’ five-page reform plan at a meeting in Brussels last week, but Tsipras rejected the proposals as “absurd” and insisted Greece’s own 47-page blueprint should be the basis for talks.
Juncker on Sunday accused Tsipras of failing to respect “minimal rules” in their negotiations and refused to take a call from the Greek leader at the weekend, saying Tsipras had to submit the promised alternative reform plan first.
[AFP]
