After Wednesday’s joint statement between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Greece’s lenders issued a joint statement reiterating their “objective of helping Greece achieve financial stability and growth.” This signifies the unlocking of negotiations that have stalled on Tuesday when both sides had said that they are not backing down on their demands. However, late on Wednesday, the climate changed dramatically as Brussels issued a joint statement saying that the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund share the common goal to help Greece. The thorny issues in negotiations so far have been the pension system and labor market laws. Now both sides seem willing to make concessions and meet somewhere in the middle. Greece is offering a raise in value added tax on certain items and luxury taxes. However, it is not willing to cut supplementary pensions. After the talks with Juncker, the Greek Prime Minister had a telephone discussion with French President Francois Hollande asking for a “mutually beneficial solution” to the Greek debt problem. The two leaders discussed pensions and labor market reforms and, according to sources from the Maximos Mansion, their views converged. Below is the joint statement issued by Greece’s international creditors: Brussels, 06 May 2015 The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund share the same objective of helping Greece achieve financial stability and growth. The institutions continue to work closely together toward that goal. All three institutions are working hard to achieve concrete progress on 11 May. STATEMENT/15/4931 Tsipras optimistic about deal makes humorous comments After the positive joint statement by the troika of international lenders and his communication with the EC president and the French president, the Greek premier appeared very optimistic about the prospect of coming to an agreement with lenders before Greece runs out of cash. Answering to reporters about the discussions with Juncker and Hollande, Tsipras said they went very well. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said. When asked about details, the prime minister answered enigmatically referring reporters to a cartoon published on Wednesday in Kathimerini daily in which Tsipras is depicted sitting on a couch between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde: -What does she want here, Alexis? -Calm down, Christine… -I AM CALM!..
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