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This article was published June 25, 2015 at 17:16.
The last change is the 25 June 2015 at 12:41.
The Greek proposal, updated with new details, has been accepted by the institutions as a basis work that will now be discussed in the Eurogroup. This is what we learn from Greek sources after the meeting between Tsipras, Juncker, Lagarde, Dragons (Ansa)
Not even the negotiations this morning were enough to find an agreement between institutions (EU, ECB, IMF and ESM) and Greece for the disbursement of the final tranche of 7.2 billion aid. According to reports from a source close to the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, “there is no ‘agreement and institutions are united.” (Agi)
BRUSSELS – You failed last night, the third meeting in a week of finance ministers of the euro area, engaged in the rescue of Greece, on the brink of financial precipice. In the absence of a pre-agreement between the credit institutions and the Mediterranean country, the Eurogroup had a discussion inconclusive. Ministers will return to reunite to 13 today, in the hope that in the meantime the technical negotiations have made significant progress.
“We have not reached an agreement – said at the end of the meeting last night the President Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem -. However, we are determined to continue our work to do the needful. Caught between the urgent need to get an understanding and fear of provoking negative reactions in their public opinions, for days the parties are looking for an uncertain compromise. The reasons for the repeated failures are not just political. There is already resentment and distrust on both sides.
The subject of this particular round of negotiations are the measures proposed by the government Tsipras Monday, and considered by creditors “a good basis for discussion.” In the last two days credit institutions (European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank) have analyzed the proposals, audited accounts, drawn up a list of measures that Athens should adopt immediately to unlock new aid. Since Tuesday, some negotiators the game seemed more difficult than expected.
To confirm the difficulties was yesterday the premier greek Alexis Tsipras. Controversially, he accused “some” of creditors have hidden objectives: “This curious attitude seems to indicate that one of two things: there is no interest in an agreement or there is the support of special interests.” To many it seemed that the accusation was addressed in particular the IMF. According to many observers, the Fund had at this time a very demanding attitude, along with some governments.
The premier greek spent the afternoon yesterday met with key stakeholders in Greece: Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem , Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, ECB President Mario Draghi, the head of the IMF Christine Lagarde. The discussion has not yielded results, so that the Eurogroup has started late last night that it could not consider an agreement. A new meeting between Tsipras and banks took place last night.
“The greek government is firm on his positions,” said an official greek 1 tonight, after two hours of new threads at the top . The technical talks between negotiators started again at 6 am, while discussions between Tsipras and the presidents of credit institutions should start at 9 in the morning. The attempt to close the agreement to lead to the ministers of Finance which, as mentioned, will return to meet this afternoon at 13 always here in Brussels.
Before the work of the Eurogroup yesterday, the Finnish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb stated that assess the possible agreement on the basis of the need to seek the approval of the Finnish Parliament. The clarification is not trivial. The agreement is difficult not only because the Greeks want concessions, but also because lenders must be able to wrest a compromise at home. At stake are 7.2 billion euro related to a memorandum to expire at the end of the month.
The nodes of the agreement are taxation and pensions. On the first front, the creditors would like the VAT was 23% for restaurants, while the government Tsipras insists on a rate of 13%. In addition, credit institutions reject the idea of a 12% tax on corporate earnings in excess of 500 million euro. “You can not base a program only on the promise of new revenue – told the magazine Challenges Ms. Lagarde -. It ‘been done in the last five years, with few results. “
On the pension side, lenders insist on a cut of pensions more generous, rather than an increase in contributions as provided by the government Tsipras to make ends meet. They also want an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 67 years since 2022 and the abolition of early retirement. For the premier greek it comes to finding a double compromise with its creditors and with his party, which in Athens is increasingly divided the idea of accepting too unpopular economic measures.
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