Eurozone finance ministers were to hold new talks yesterday to thrash out the details of a Greek debt deal, with officials terming the following 48 hours as “decisive” as the clock ticks on a deadline for Athens to avert default.
Hopes were high going in to the talks that Greece and its creditors could strike a deal with less than a week to go, but those could fade as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras must convince his anti-austerity party to approve concessions needed to unblock bailout funds.
“We are very near [an agreement], the next 48 hours will be decisive,” Greek government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said on Tuesday ahead of the meeting and a full meeting of all 28 EU member states today.
“I am convinced that we will reach an agreement,” EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici told French radio on Tuesday after Greece submitted an 11th-hour reform plan to free up crucial funds from its bailout.
An emergency eurozone summit ended on Monday with an optimistic assessment of Athens’ latest proposals to its EU and IMF creditors.
The optimism drove Asian stocks up yesterday morning, with Tokyo hitting a more than 18-year high on confidence of a deal.
The euro bought US$1.1185 and ¥138.54 in midday trade in Tokyo, down from US$1.1393 and ¥139.95 in Asian trade on Tuesday.
However, Moscovici said that “work remained to be done” on the issues of value-added tax and pension reform — key sticking points for the government in Athens.
The Greek government also issued a word of caution on Tuesday, saying that any accord would have to be approved by a Greek parliamentary majority before Tuesday next week.
“If the agreement is not approved by the deputies of the governmental majority, the government cannot remain in place,” Sakellaridis said.
Getting approval could prove a tough battle for Tsipras, who was elected on an anti-austerity platform, and might risk members of his SYRIZA party viewing him as reneging on campaign promises.
Tsipras was also to meet the leaders of Greece’s creditors — the EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi and the IMF’s Christine Lagarde — in Brussels yesterday afternoon.
Greece is up against a deadline of Tuesday next week to repay the IMF about 1.5 billion euros (US$1.7 billion).
Meanwhile growing fears of a bank run in Greece amid a huge outflow in deposits again prompted the European Central Bank on Tuesday to inject more emergency funding to cover withdrawals.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that while Greece’s latest plans were a “good starting point for further talks,” it was also clear that “absolutely intensive work is necessary now.”
At the same time, Merkel ruled out any question of debt reduction, as Greece has demanded, and also said the leaders at the emergency eurozone summit had not discussed any possible extension of the Athens bailout.
The Greek proposals were a last-ditch bid to unlock the final 7.2 billion euro tranche of its current bailout program. If it fails to get the funds, it will almost certainly be unable to make the payment to the IMF at the end of the month.
However, Sakellaridis said that there was “no question of putting in place other measures ... there is no question of stepping back on our proposal.”
Sakellaridis added that Athens was still under “strong pressure” to provide additional measures.
The return of 23 percent value-added tax on the restaurant sector — up from 13 percent — has already been described as “the kiss of death” by the head of an association of restaurant chains, Thanassis Papanikolaou.
Greece’s latest proposals for this year and next aim to raise 8 billion euros, mostly through new taxes.
One lawmaker from Tsipras’ party — which holds 149 out of 300 seats in parliament — has already said that he will vote against the proposed deal.
Tsipras has started to marshal his arguments to defend a deal with Greece’s creditors from the IMF and EU, saying late on Monday that Athens’ proposals preserve “social justice.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese