Greece Sends Reform Plan to Lenders in Critical Debt Talks

A sculpture of ancient greek goddess Athena and greek flags are reflected on a building in central Athens, Greece, on 01 June 2015. EPA/BGNES

Greece said on Tuesday it has submitted a detailed reform proposal to its international lenders and called on them to accept it to unlock badly needed bailout money, international newswires reported.

"We have submitted a realistic plan for Greece to exit the crisis. A realistic plan, whose acceptance by the institutions, our lenders and our partners in Europe will mark the end of the scenario of divisions in Europe," Tsipras told reporters, according to Reuters.

It is uncertain whether Greece has the money to pay EUR 303 M owed to the IMF on Friday, which is the first portion of a total of EUR 1.6 B debt payments to the global lender due this month, AP noted in its coverage of the news. Athens’s failure to meet its obligations could trigger Greece’s default and potential exit from the eurozone.

Tsipras said the reform plan was submitted on Monday night to the IMF, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission but didn’t five any specifics on its content. According to inside sources, however, there were no major concessions in Greece’s proposal that would enable the release of the final tranche of EUR 7.2 B  of bailout aid sought by Athens. Without the money, Greece might be unable to make Friday’s debt payment.

Pension and labour market reform, fiscal targets and the size of the civil service are the main outstanding issues in the talks between Greece and its creditors.

An emergency meeting of Europe’s top politicy makers to discuss a deal with Greece was held in Berlin last night. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, the ECB head Mario Draghi,  the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the IMF chief Christine Lagarde were shown a technical paper outlining possible ways to clinch a  deal with Tsipras’ left-wing government, according to the Financial Times.

The five leaders “agreed that work must now be continued with greater intensity” and that “they have been in closest contact in recent days and want to remain so in the coming days, both among themselves and naturally also with the Greek government, according to a statement released by Merkel’s office on Tuesday, Bloomberg said.

 

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