The
failure of weekend talks in Brussels between Greece and its creditors has now
left Thursday’s Eurogroup meeting as perhaps the last possible opportunity for
a deal before the country defaults.
Greek
prime minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out at creditors – the International
Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank – on Sunday
night, when talks broke up after an alleged mere 45 minutes.
“The
institutions’ insistence on further cuts to pensions after five years of
devastation wrought by memoranda can only be attributed to a political agenda,”
he said.
‘Memoranda’
is a reference to the cash-for-austerity deals Greece signed in 2010 and 2012.
“We
carry the dignity of an entire people… we cannot bury democracy in the land
where it was born,” he added.
Greece
owes the International Monetary Fund 1.6bn euros on June 30. A European
leaders’ summit on June 24-25 could act as a final stopgap for a deal, but some
senior financial officials in Athens believe that European leaders will not do
a political deal with Athens in the absence of a technical agreement that
balances the country’s books this year.
Greece
has resisted a reduction in pension payouts equal to one percent of GDP. It
also refuses to raise consumer tax (VAT) by a similar amount, saying such
measures will trigger renewed recession.
A
team of senior Greek negotiators arrived in Brussels on Saturday to renew
overtures after a failure to reach agreement on Thursday – one in a series of
such failures.
“Despite
the Greek representation’s continued presence in Brussels, there was no
willingness by institutions to talk at a level of authority that would allow
differences to be resolved,” said deputy prime minister Yannis Dragasakis, who
is a member of the negotiating team.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker did not attend weekend
talks in person, leaving deputies in his stead.
John Psaropoulos
John Psaropoulos
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