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Monday, June 22, 2015

No Deal Today for Greece, ‘New Proposal Is Good Basis for Talks,’ EU Officials Say

The new Greek proposal is a good basis for further talks but no deal can be reached today at the emergency Eurozone summit, said Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem. Greece’s creditors said that they did not have time to evaluate the new plan on Monday, before the summit. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that despite the new Greek plan, “we are unable to provide adequate preparation” for Monday night’s summit. Dijsselbloem said creditors aim to get a deal on Greece’s bailout later in the week. “It’s an opportunity to get that deal this week,” he said after the Eurogroup session was completed. There is no prospect of any kind of agreement in this evening’s summit, so the solution to the Greek issue will be postponed once more. Not for long though, since there is another EU summit on Thursday, in which the Greek side is laying its hopes on to secure a deal. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Greece’s new proposals were a sign of progress but warned that “we are not yet there.” However, the delay in securing a deal brings Greece closer to default as the Greek government has announced that it is impossible to make the 1.6-billion-euros repayment due to the International Monetary Fund on June 30. The European Central Bank keeps pumping liquidity to Greek banks, and it has done so for the third time in less than a week. On Monday it increased its emergency liquidity assistance to strained Greek lenders in an effort to replace heavy withdrawals from anxious depositors. In the past week, 4 billion euros flew out of Greek banks, while another billion was withdrawn on Monday.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com