Eurogroup Gives Greece 10 Day Ultimatum: Apply For Bailout Or Grexit - page 4
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Germany's Schaeuble Pours Cold Water on Greece's Request
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has criticized speculation that Greece will hand over a request on Wednesday asking for an extension of its current loan agreements for six months.
Speaking for German ZDF TV late Tuesday, the minister said Greece was trying to receive money, while refusing to meet the necessary conditions.
"It’s not about an extension of the loan program, it’s about whether this program is fulfilled, yes or no," Schaeuble said in an interview.
"There is no loan agreement, it’s an assistance program. And in this seemingly unimportant detail lies the key: Greece would like to receive credit, but not fulfill the conditions to allow Greece to recover economically," the German minister added.
Greece will submit a request for a six-month extension to its loan agreement with its creditors to the Eurogroup on Wednesday, several media outlets reported on Wednesday morning, including Greek daily Kathimerini.
The loan extension request could help to overcome the impasse at Monday’s Eurogroup meeting, but the fact that Greece will only ask to extend its loan agreement rather than its bailout program could create complications in some national parliaments, which have to approve the extension of the agreement.
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Greece loan-extension request delayed until Thursday: reports
The Greek government is not going to ask for a loan extension on Wednesday, but will instead wait until Thursday to submit the request, according to media reports. Greece's government spokesperson Gabriel Sakellaridis said midday Wednesday that the official request for a loan agreement will be sent to the Eurogroup on Thursday morning, just hours after confirming the submission would happen on Wednesday.
Greece is said to be seeking an extension to its loan only, and not to the full bailout program. The bailout comes on condition of strict austerity measures, which the new government is trying to renegotiate. The current rescue program expires on Feb. 28, and Greece risks running out of money, unless some sort of deal with its European partners can be reached before then.
Greece to submit loan request to euro zone, Germany resists
Greece will submit a request to the euro zone on Thursday to extend a "loan agreement" for up to six months but EU paymaster Germany says no such deal is on offer and Athens must stick to the terms of its existing international bailout.
The move, confirmed by an official spokesman, is an attempt by the new leftist-led government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to keep a financial lifeline for an interim period while sidestepping tough austerity conditions in the EU/IMF program.
An EU source said whether finance ministers of the 19-nation currency bloc, who rejected such ideas at a meeting on Monday, accept the request as a basis to resume negotiations will depend on how it is formulated.
Hardline German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble poured scorn on the Greek gambit, telling broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday evening: "It's not about extending a credit program but about whether this bailout program will be fulfilled, yes or no."
However, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democratic junior partners in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition, welcomed what he called the signal from the Greek government that it was ready to negotiate.
With the current bailout deal with the euro zone due to expire on Feb. 28, Tsipras said talks were at a crucial stage and his demands for an end to austerity were winning support.
"There were protests across Europe supporting the moves made by Greece and we have managed for the first time through contacts with foreign leaders to create a positive stance on our requests," he said at a televised meeting with President Karolos Papoulias.
EU officials said intensive consultations were under way between Athens, the Eurogroup and the European Commission, with Italy and France also involved in the search for a compromise.
Germany and other euro zone countries were standing firm on their insistence that there can be no roll-back of reforms already implemented under the bailout and that Greece will have to repay all it has borrowed, they said.
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Eurogroup meets on Friday on Greek request – EUR/USD slides
Greece has submitted the official request for an extension of the loan. The details and conditions still aren’t clear. The Eurogroup meets tomorrow, Friday the 20th, to discuss it. Update: some details are emerging.
Will they accept or reject it? In the meantime, EUR/USD seems skeptic and slides back below 1.14, still above support.
The head of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem was quick to post on Twitter that he received the Greek request for a six months extension, without details about the content. The meeting is held in Brussels on Friday, 15:00 local time, which is 14:00 GMT.
Here are some more details, via the Guardian live blog:
Reuters snaps, based on a conversation with a Greek government official:
19-Feb-2015 10:14 – GREECE IS COMMITTED TO FISCAL BALANCE DURING INTERIM PERIOD UNDER REQUESTED LOAN AGREEMENT EXTENSION – GREEK GOVT OFFICIAL
19-Feb-2015 10:15 – GREECE COMMITTED TO REFORMS IMMEDIATELY ON TAX EVASION AND CORRUPTION- GOVT OFFICIAL
19-Feb-2015 10:16 – GREEK PROPOSAL INCLUDES MEASURES TO DEAL WITH HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AND KICK START ECONOMY-GOVT OFFICIAL
19-Feb-2015 10:17 – GREEK GOVT’S SIX MONTH EXTENSION TO GIVE GOVT ROOM TO PROCEED WITH NEGOTIATIONS FOR A NEW GROWTH DEAL OVER 2015-2019 – GOVT OFFICIAL
19-Feb-2015 10:17 – GREEK GOVT OFFICIAL SAYS NEW DEAL WILL ALSO INCLUDE AGREEMENT ON DEBT REDUCTION
19-Feb-2015 10:17 – GREEK GOVT OFFICIAL SAYS SEEKING DEBT REDUCTION DEAL IN LINE WITH 2012 EUROGROUP AGREEMENT
However, if we look at the reaction of the euro and also at this report, it is not time to celebrate, not yet:
read more
Germany Rejects Loan Request Saying Greece Must Meet Conditions
Germany rejected Greece’s request for an extension of its aid program, saying its offer doesn’t meet the euro region’s conditions for continuing aid.
The Greek government is trying to agree bridge-financing without meeting the conditions of its existing rescue program, German Finance Ministry Spokesman Martin Jaeger said in an e-mailed statement. European Commission Spokesman Margaritis Schinas moments earlier had said the Greek letter could be the basis for a “reasonable compromise.”
The euro dropped 0.3 percent to $1.1358.
With the Greek state and its banks shut out of financial markets and dependent on emergency aid to stay afloat, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is retreating from his pledges to end austerity as the country’s creditors tighten the financial vise.
Tsipras’s government in a letter to fellow euro member states offered to work for the “successful conclusion and review” of the current financing agreement with creditors in a bid to avert a cash crunch.
Euro-region finance ministers will make a “detailed assessment” of the request and formulate a response, Schinas said at a press conference in Brussels Thursday. Ministers are due to meet on Friday.
During the extension “we shall proceed jointly, and making best use of given flexibility in the current arrangement, toward its successful conclusion and review on the basis of the proposals of, on the one hand, the Greek government and, on the other, the institutions,” Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said in the letter.
Varoufakis said the extension will allow Greece to agree on supervision by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund and discuss a new contract.
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Greek request creates divide in the euro-zone
The German finance ministry didn’t waste any time to state a clear “Nein” - an outright rejection of the Greek request, which can be certainly seen in Greece as a capitulation, or at least a climbing down to the previous stance.
However, not all in the euro-zone are in line with the move: Italy’s finance minister Padoan supports the Greek request. And what does the head of the Eurogroup think? He called a meeting tomorrow but before he saw the paper in depth, the news from Germany came out. Even if he sides with Germany, he was undoubtedly humiliated by the fast and furious German move.
Opposition to the German move also comes from within Germany: the Green party, which is in opposition, says that Schäuble´s move was “irresponsible blocking tactics”.
Following the German rejection, the Greek government did not respond directly to Europe’s largest power, but basically said that the proposal is “take it or leave it”: either accept or reject it. And in addition, they said that it will show who wants a solution and who doesn’t.
EUR/USD has been moving on the news. We still believe a solution will eventually be found.
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Let's hope somebody gives in in this game of chicken by the end of tomorrow....
Let's hope somebody gives in in this game of chicken by the end of tomorrow....
I would not count n it
When Germany tells that :
What options Greece has when someone is trying to prevent their democratically elected Parliament to work (but is telling them to pretend to work)?
U.S. Stepping Up Efforts to Break Greece Impasse, Official Says
The U.S. is stepping up efforts to encourage Greece and its European creditors to reach an agreement that would prevent the euro area’s economy from weakening further, according to a U.S. Treasury official.
Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew talked today with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of the 19 euro-area finance ministers, the official told reporters during a briefing in Washington on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. wants to see both sides tone down the rhetoric and reach a pragmatic compromise, the official said. The talks are at an impasse as Greece and other euro-area countries debate terms to extend a bailout from the European Central Bank and European Commission that expires at the end of February. Greece also has a loan program with the International Monetary Fund that ends in March 2016.
The stalemate has renewed concern that Greece may abandon the euro, setting off shock waves throughout the currency zone and beyond. The Treasury official said Lew has also spoken to his German counterparts and officials at the European Commission and the IMF.
Germany left the door open to an agreement on Greece’s bailout funding as officials prepare their negotiating positions going into a meeting of finance ministers in Brussels Friday.
The latest round of calls follows a conversation on Wednesday between Lew and Varoufakis. Lew urged Greece to reach a deal with its international creditors or face additional hardship and encouraged Greece to find a constructive path forward in its partnership with Europe, according to a Treasury Department readout of a call between the two officials.
Lew also spoke on the phone Feb. 13 with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, urging all parties to set aside rhetoric and focus on a pragmatic solution.
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Let's hope somebody gives in in this game of chicken by the end of tomorrow....
They will not
Now US is included - we an only imagine what goes behind the scenes