Brussels / Berlin / Athens (Reuters) – After the provisional withdrawal of the IMF’s teams from the negotiations with Greece, the euro partners demand concessions of the Athens government to resolve the debt dispute.
The ball lay in the field of Greece, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday. Euro group chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem expected now “serious proposals”. A spokesman for the Greek government said that negotiations would continue with the aim of that agreement does not exceed the established by Athens red lines. The Government was ready to intensify talks on the political level.
Greece is satisfied with reforms in return for more aid funds in order to make the economy more competitive. So far, creditors have however been no green light to the proposals of the left government in Athens. If there is no agreement, Greece threatened with state bankruptcy.
The federal government is working in his own words, despite the dwindling time in remaining Greece in the euro zone. Both Berlin and Juncker pointed out that the departure of the IMF team should not be interpreted as a breakdown of the talks on the part of the Fund. Rather, it was to be understood as a warning to the Greek government, said the spokesman of the Federal Ministry of Finance. On Thursday, the negotiating team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was surprisingly left out of Brussels and this was justified by “large differences” in the talks. The step had caused nervousness in the financial markets and give cause to fear that the Hellas negotiations have failed.
Also Juncker spokesman admitted that there still admit differences. The EU Commission had spoken with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday for two hours. Previously, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande had sought a rapprochement with him in the negotiations.
The “Bild” newspaper reported, meanwhile, that the federal government already preparing for a Greek default. “We work to ensure that Greece can remain a member of the euro zone,” said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. “And we stand by the principle that European solidarity must always be accompanied by their own reform efforts of the country concerned.”
Time is running out in the months since running dispute: The utility will end on 30 June. One last chance for an agreement to be the meeting of euro zone finance ministers on 18 June in Luxembourg, according to EU officials.
Tsipras took after his return from Brussels on Thursday evening in the celebrations to mark the reopening of the closed two years ago, state television ERT part. “As long as the people support our efforts, we will continue to pursue our just demands,” the prime minister said there. The reasoned with austerity measures closure of ERT under the previous government had led to violent protests in Greece. The 2,500 employees of the publisher will now be re-adjusted, the annual cost of 30 million euros will be covered by a levy which is collected with the electricity bill. Also overall, Tsipras defends against social cuts, such as the pension system.
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