Greek
leaders appeared to blink first in the eurozone stand-off with Germany,
promising to “immediately implement” tax and pension-related measures in return
for a three-year loan from Europe’s bailout fund.
However, the letter did not specify if
Greece had agreed to the meet the full demands of its creditors and eurozone
members which have called for a host of austerity measures including large cuts
to pensions, VAT increases and a more robust tax-collection regime.
The letter was delivered to the ESM as
Greece’s Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipiras, pleaded in a speech at the European
Parliament for a “sustainable” solution to the crisis, and a day after Greece’s
euro partners slapped a Sunday deadline on negotiations.
It appeared to show a new urgency by the
Greek government, which had on Tuesday arrived in Brussels with no new
proposals to end its crisis, despite the momentum of the referendum on Sunday
that resoundingly rejected austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors
and partners - Germany principal among them.
Greece’s aim, the letter went on, was to
regain “full and affordable market financing to meet its future funding
requirements as well as a sustainable economic and financial situation” by the
time the loan period ends. It said the country was committed to honouring its
financial obligations to its creditors, and on time. “We trust member states
appreciate the urgency of our loan request,” it said.The content of the letter
was greeted with cautious optimism by some. The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano
Rajoy, said Greek’s “tune” appeared to have changed for the better, but he was
still waiting to see the “lyrics” of the proposal.
However, a spokesman for Germany’s Finance
Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said that Greece had to deliver “an exact account”
of the reforms it would implement. “It must be complete. It won’t be good
enough to write a letter saying that Greece wants an aid programme.”
Greece’s apparent new urgency was signalled
hours after the late-night warning from Donald Tusk, who chairs meetings of
European leaders, that the EU had only five days left to find “the ultimate
agreement”. Declaring unambiguously “Tonight I have to say loud and clear that
the final deadline ends this week,” he made it plain that a Greek exit from the
euro would follow if this deadline was not met.
On Wednesday, the governor of France’s
central bank, Christian Noyer, stepped up the rhetoric, declaring that Athens
faced “riots and chaos” if a deal could not be agreed by the end of the week.
“The Greek economy is on the verge of catastrophe,” said Mr Noyer, who also
sits on the board of the European Central Bank (ECB), one of Greece’s
creditors.
He said the ECB had maintained a “lifeline”
for Greek banks but that “our rules oblige us to stop immediately at the point
when there is no prospect of a political accord on a programme, or at the point
when the Greek banking system crumbles”.
That could come within days as banks remain
closed, capital limits on withdrawals remain in place and liquidity dries up in
a country which owes more than €300bn and whose GDP has fallen by 25 per cent
in seven years.
Rigid capital controls introduced last week
have already cost the country 40,000 jobs in its fragile construction industry,
according to Zacharias Athoussakis, the chairman of Sate, a group which
represents Greece’s medium and large engineering companies.
“We estimate that approximately 40,000
people have departed in the last days, as many construction sites have closed
down, leading to lay-offs and suspensions,” he said,
Greece’s letter, and the full plan if it is
tabled, will be discussed on Thursday by officials from the eurogroup - the technical
advisers working on a deal - rather than by finance ministers. The proposals
can only be accepted if they show a timetable for structural reforms and an
ability to service any further loans. From there, short-term measures must be
agreed as a basis for negotiations, with a view to a deal being agreed by the
end of the week.
However, any agreement must then be accepted
by individual state parliaments – meaning that the German Bundestag, which has
become hostile to any revised deal with Greece, has an effective veto.
Germany’s Finance Ministry said it did not see any reason to grant Greece a
debt “haircut” or any other measures that would slash the value of money on
loan to the crisis-ridden country.
“At the moment and in principle we see, as
the Chancellor [Angela Merkel] said expressly... no occasion at all to discuss
this issue,” said a spokesman. “I explicitly add, we also take that to mean
measures that aim to bring about a reduction in the cash value of debt.” The
tough messages appeared to be having an effect on Mr Tsipiras, whose struck a
somewhat conciliatory tone when he told the European parliament in Strasbourg
that Greeks had no choice but to find a way out of “this impasse”.
“We are determined not to have a clash with
Europe but to tackle head on the establishment in our own country and to change
the mindset which will take us and the eurozone down,” he said to applause from
the left.
He admitted that after winning power on a
promise to end austerity, he had “spent more time negotiating than governing”
and was critical of Greece’s failings as a society, citing a history of
clientelism, corruption and chronic tax evasion that had “run riot”.
Some MEPs, however, were not convinced. Guy
Verhofstadt, the leader of the parliament’s Liberal bloc, said: “I am angry
because you are talking about reforms but we never see concrete proposals.”
Πηγή: independent.co.uk
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου