BRUSSELS – The agreement between Greece and creditors still there but, leaving the EU Commission at a late hour, the President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem has announced that one of yesterday “was a good meeting, we will continue in the coming days “. Tsipras, coming out, it became even more confident: “I am optimistic, we are very close to an agreement, we have a basis on which to discuss and we will make further progress in the coming days, an agreement is in sight.” “Of all the parts it is no agreement to put an end to the austerity measures and the past, none – added the premier greek – takes longer to make the same mistakes.” He reassured on paying an installment of Friday. The negotiations between Greece and its creditors in the final stages that do not show up less stormy but a glimpse of previous openings for an agreement.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was flown to Brussels with his proposal, to meet dinner that President Juncker has on the table a counter set up with Merkel, Hollande, Draghi and Lagarde. The pressure to reach an agreement – even from the White House – is high, given that Athens threatens to trigger the default tomorrow, Friday. Creditors are ready to negotiate but “must be a strong agreement,” says the president of the ECB, and must meet the needs of the Greeks who want growth, creditors who want to make ends meet and that eurozone governments not want ‘discounts’ special Athens.
Meanwhile, European stock markets see glimmers of understanding and close positive. Dinner in Brussels was also involved the president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem, not invited to not offend the Greek prime minister with whom there is bad blood. But it needs the voice of all the creditor representatives to advance the technical negotiations, and then Juncker will be in contact with the ECB and IMF. On the table there are two proposals: that of Greece, which for Athens contains the maximum possible concessions and that creditors judged insufficient, and that the creditors that instead you can shave yet, but you are looking for a convergence. “Asking too much Greece could slow the return to growth, but do not ask for nothing or not enough would have consequences on the entire euro zone,” said President Francois Hollande that he sees an agreement is very close, as well as the Minister of Economy Pier Carlo Padoan.
Berlin held more cautious: “You work at feverish pace, with strong pressure to find an agreement,” said Chancellor Merkel, as her minister Wolfgang Schauble said that the proposal Greek “it will not be the final solution”, and Draghi says that there is still no credible prospect that the program with Greece will be concluded positively. We are not yet to the ultimatum and the institutions are keen to make it known. The will of all is to find an agreement before the G7 on Saturday and Sunday in Bavaria, and possibly by Friday, in order to defuse the threat of Athens who do not pay this installment of 300 million euro to the IMF in the absence of an agreement . It would be a dangerous move that could trigger the dreaded ‘incident’ that causes the default, and the eurozone wants to avoid it.
At the same time, however, the lenders do not intend to cede too much in the negotiations. For example, it is possible that we are talking about a cut debt, said spokesman Schauble. Instead there would be an agreement already in surplus, so far one of the great obstacles. Yesterday also Draghi opened in Athens, stressing that the goal should take into account the low growth. Creditors would have proposed a primary surplus (before, that is, interest payments) 1% for 2015, 2% in 2016, 3% for 2017 and 3.5% for 2018. The numbers are well below 3% for 2015 and 4.5% for the following years under the Agreement signed by the executive last year.
The gap narrows, therefore, between creditors and Athens, which would proposed 0.8% this year and 1.5% next, but it is clear the government’s intention Tsipras for subsequent years. Distances remain on pensions, with the Greeks that resist any kind of cut and propose to raise the retirement age, and the labor market, with Athens does not want to implement the commitments made by the previous government that enable the mass layoffs.
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