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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Greece 'Will Request Multi-Year Bailout' Prior to EU-28 Summit on Sunday

EU leaders are due to hold a full (EU-28) summit in another attempt to look for a viable solution on Greece. This has been announced after a Eurozone summit on Tuesday evening where Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has already outlined plans of his country for a new aid program. Officials say Greece agreed that there should be "strict conditionality" if a new bailout is to be in place. The new summit will be "decisive", Italian PM Matteo Renzi has said after the Tuesday talks. By then the Eurozone will wait for Greece to submit new proposals on how to tackle its debt crisis through reforms and get another (or two more) bailout package in return. Greece must submit "Thursday at the latest" a comprehensive reform proposal also focusing on long-term needs, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said for her part after the summit. Tuesday's discussion was very "clear", she underlined. Merkel also confirmed that a "multi-year" bailout program will be officially requested by Athens. She also asserted Tsipas had "promised" here to send a detailed proposal in just days. In her words, it is the importance of the situation that requires of all 28 EU member states, and not just Eurozone members, to be there. (This is something EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also repeated in his press conference, adding it was "unfair" to exclude countries like Bulgaria in Romania, which are also affected by developments in Greece, from the decisions.") "A [debt] haircut is out of the question," she made clear. "This is a bailout." Juncker himself said he was personally "against Grexit" and was "strongly in favor of keeping Greece in the euro area", but Grexit could not be ruled out as an option. EU Council President Donald Tusk warne there are only five days to solve the crisis now, and argued that "all sides of the negotiations share responsibility for the current status quo." Asked why leaders of all 28 member states were needed on Sunday, he said: "We cannot avoid the possibility that there will not be a proposal on the table by Sunday."  Tuesday's summit will be followed by a Wednesday visit of Tsipras to the European Parliament. Prior to the Eurozone leaders' meeting, Tsipras held talks Merkel, Juncker, and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi. Meanwhile the US has also sent a message on Greece, with US President Barack Obama calling on both Merkel and Tsipas, in phone conversations, to provide incentives for Eurozone partners to accept a deal and keep Greece in the single currency area.


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