Greece Talks Spill Into 2nd Day as Finance Chiefs Deadlock

European finance ministers deadlocked over how to keep Greece in the euro, forcing emergency talks to continue Sunday and threatening to delay the infusion Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras desperately needs.

   With Greece running out of money and its banks shut for the past two weeks, the hardline group led by Germany signaled that the country’s debt was too great, Tsipras’s reform proposals were inadequate and, in any event, the Greeks couldn’t be trusted to keep their word. Finance ministry aides will work through the night, allowing finance chiefs to reconvene at 11 a.m. in Brussels before a leaders’ summit.

   “It’s still very difficult, but work is still in progress,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, told reporters after nine hours of talks that ended at midnight. “The issue of credibility and trust was discussed and also, of course, the financial issues.”

   The skepticism expressed by the policy makers came hours after Tsipras won overwhelming support in the Greek Parliament for a package of spending cuts, pension savings and tax increases intended to win financial aid of at least 74 billion euros ($83 billion). Among its shortcomings, the proposals failed to reflect the economic deterioration since talks collapsed and capital controls were imposed two weeks ago, according to Dijsselbloem.

   Their concerns were reflected by the media back home. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported a finance ministry proposal to suspend Greece from the euro area for five years. The idea was dismissed as illegal and nonsense by a European Union official who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Finnish media reported the Helsinki government flatly opposed the bailout.

Πηγή: bloomberg.com