EU commission gives guarded welcome to Greek plan before talks
A new proposal by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras drew a rare positive nod from European officials who indicated it could help break a months-long impasse during marathon talks on Monday.
The new offer “was a good basis for progress” ahead of Monday’s emergency summit, European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr, said in a Twitter posting. He also referred in German to the inception of the plan as “birth by forceps.”
“These proposals go in the right direction,” European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Europe 1 radio. Reaching an accord is “very important for Greece, for the Greeks, important for the euro and for Europe. And this time around it’s decisive because we must be aware that the markets are watching.”
The euro gained as much as 0.5 percent against the dollar in Asian trading and was still trading higher in the early European session. Greek bonds inched higher in early trading Monday, with the yield on notes maturing in 2017 falling 38 basis points to 28.49 percent at 9:41 a.m. local time. Spanish and Italian government bonds were also trading higher.
Before the start of the summit in Brussels, Tsipras will meet with representatives of the countries’ main creditors. He’ll sit down with European Council head Donald Tusk before they’re joined by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem, an e-mailed statement from the Greek prime minister’s office said.
Emergency Funding
With the clock running down on a June 30 deadline to make payments and work out a new aid deal after months of fruitless negotiations, Tsipras will have to convince the country’s creditors that he’s ready to compromise on election promises and avoid a default. With its finances in tatters and banks bleeding deposits at record pace, it’s unclear how long Greece can hold out without a fresh infusion of rescue loans.
Euro-area finance ministers will meet at 12:30 p.m. to prepare the gathering of government leaders set to begin at 7 p.m. Ahead of the talks, the ECB will hold a conference call to assess emergency funding for Greece’s banks as deposits continue to drop at dizzying rates.
In phone calls Sunday, Tsipras briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Juncker on Greece’s proposal to unlock bailout funds, according to a separate statement from his office.
[Bloomberg]
