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Friday, July 3, 2015

Yanis Varoufakis says Europe has offered Greece a deal 'we would sign on the dotted line'

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says the European governments with whom he is negotiating have offered him a deal he is willing to sign, according to an interview on Channel 4. There is a condition, however. Greece must first vote "no" in the referendum on accepting Europe's bailout conditions, on Sunday. It is not clear what the terms of the deal are, and Channel 4's video ends before Varoufakis describes them. A transcript of that interview reads like this: Varoufakis: Let me tell you something which is probably unknown. Ever since we declared a referendum and incensed our European partners we had the most, er, interesting proposals coming from Brussels. Perhaps this referendum and the impasse that it represents concentrated several minds in Brussels and we’ve had some really good proposals. Proposals that we would sign on the dotted line for. Channel 4's Paul Mason: You have a proposal you would sign on the dotted line for? Varoufakis: Yes we do. Paul Mason: Where is it? Varoufakis: I’m not going to tell you. It’s somewhere in this building. But the of course crucial part of the story is that before this proposal becomes a genuine negotiating document which we can sign off on Monday, the Greek people have to empower us with a “no." The background here is that after Greece defaulted on a 1.5 billion euro repayment to the IMF, the IMF then admitted that Greece's debts are so large they need to be restructured. This gave a huge boost to Varoufakis's left-leaning Syriza government in Greece, which wants voters to vote "no" to Europe's bailout conditions. The EU and the IMF want Greeks to vote "yes" and accept the bailout conditions. Those conditions require Greece to repay its debts in full by reforming its economy, cutting public spending, and increasing the level of tax collection. If the Greeks vote no, Europe must either give in and restructure the debt — or write it down — in a way that pleases the Greeks. Or, Greece can accept the consequences of its default and leave the eurozone. That latter option would create even more chaos in the Greek economy and require the country to re-adopt its old currency, the drachma, at a vastly devalued rate. Greece has roughly another 7 billion euros in debt due to the IMF in July, which many people believe the country is incapable of paying. The country is literally expected to run out of cash in its banking system on Monday. Lastly, it is worth bearing in mind that Varoufakis and his colleagues have been insisting they are close to a deal for weeks now — all while defaulting on their IMF payments and calling for a referendum vote that puts the country at odds with its creditors. Here is the video: (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); There’s a potential deal somewhere in this building that could solve the Greek crisis – but I’m not going to tell you where. That’s the very latest from the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis who spoke to Paul Mason.Posted by Channel 4 News on Friday, July 3, 2015  Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Russia reveals new high-tech weapon vehicles in a rehearsal for the country's biggest military parade


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