Brussels / Berlin (Reuters) – Just before the deadline next Tuesday the debt dispute with Greece controls on its climax.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday to accept the “generous offer” of European Commission, ECB and IMF. Tsipras while throwing the Euro-partners of blackmail and ultimatums. The decision as to whether Greece is saved from national bankruptcy or not expected to fall at a meeting of finance ministers of the 19 euro-zone countries, which begins in Brussels on Saturday afternoon. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble estimated the odds of 50 to 50. In the event an agreement ask creditors Greece an extension of the aid program and billions funds in view.
EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker showed on Friday confident but at the same time slowed down. “I’m quite optimistic, but not effusively optimistic” Euro group chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem going on Saturday to try to bring together the positions of creditors and Greece. According to Merkel there is no elaborate preparations for the event that Greece be the first euro country ever goes into the state bankruptcy. When asked whether there was a “Plan B”, she answered on Friday after the EU summit in Brussels with “No”. A senior government official told Reuters a euro area country, the finance ministers must be talked about a “Plan B”, with the other euro zone countries to protect themselves against the effects of a Greek bankruptcy.
Time is running out, because an agreement would have to be confirmed by the Parliament in Athens as well as by the Bundestag before the end of the 30th June. The already repeatedly extended second aid program for Greece ends on Tuesday. Then a payment of 1.6 billion euros from Athens to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also payable. Failing an agreement, Greece would be insolvent. The creditor institutions IMF, European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission insist in return on reforms, save by Greece as well as to get more money.
CREDITORS CONSIDER EXTENDING until November
The international lenders make Greece more billions in aid promised when it accepted the reform requirements in the last minute. According to a Reuters news agency on Friday present paper the utility could be extended until the end of November. Greece could by then accrue approximately EUR 15.3 billion.
Tsipras met at the sidelines of the EU summit Merkel and French President Francois Hollande and complained to information from his government about the tough stance of the creditors. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis spoke of demands which could not accept Greece. This involves, among other things, increases in VAT and cuts in pensions, requiring creditors in which they were Greece on Thursday but come to meet.
The government in Athens insists still that hotels fall under the reduced VAT rate of 13 percent, while the creditors require the maximum rate of 23 percent. Defense spending will also in 2016 as required cut the government only to 200 million euros instead of 400 million euros. Differences there are still the subject of privatization.
Schäuble called the outcome of the negotiations in a speech in Frankfurt completely open. The chances of an agreement stood 50 to 50. He insisted on a hard line: “We must not allow any Member State to spend money without limits and to other Member States then be liable for it.”
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