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Yet another deadlock in Brussels

26/06/2015 07:05
The thriller of consultations between Athens and the international creditors has been extended after yesterday’s stalemate at the Eurogroup meeting.

All eyes now turn to tomorrow's extraordinary Eurogroup with the European leaders giving the impression that the negotiations of the Greek authorities with the international creditors are reaching the end, given the deadline of June 30, for the payment of the tranches of €1.5 bn to the IMF.

The IMF clarified yesterday via its representative that a non-payment of the tranches on June 30 means that Greece will be deemed as being in arrears and not in default.

Today consultations will continue at a purely technocratic level.

Today’s reports in the foreign press, citing European officials, argue that the institutions handed a new ultimatum to Athens.

According to the Guardian, Greece, after yesterday’s deadlock in Brussels, is a step closer to an exit from the eurozone.

It refers to the banking crisis in the country stressing that in a week outflows from Greek banks reached €2 bn while yesterday there were outflows of €1 bn.

The Financial Times talk about an ultimatum of the institutions to the Greek authorities that the Europeans are preparing a “plan B” which includes capital controls and provision of humanitarian aid.

It is estimated that €4 bn is what is separating Greece with the institutions due to different estimates for potential revenues from some of the tax measures proposed by the Greek authorities.

Key points of the disagreement are still the pensions and the VAT increases.

After the end of the first day of the Brussels summit, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said the meeting of the finance ministers on Saturday will be decisive.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras expressed confidence that there will be a compromise that will help the eurozone and Greece to emerge from the crisis.

“The European history is full of disagreements, negotiations and then compromises”, Tsipras noted.

French President, Francoise Hollande said that Saturday’s meeting is “critical” and ensured that France does everything for a long-term Greek agreement.

At a short press conference after the end of the summit, European Council President, Donald Tusk, clarified that the European leaders agreed that there is no need for another summit for Greece either on Friday or during the weekend.

An extensive debate on Greece was made during the meeting of the European Council and the Summit where both institutions referred to the resolution of the Greek issue at a technocratic level.