******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
1) Greece's PM warns of 'difficult compromise' after default threat by Alex Pigman with Helene Colliopoulou in Athens Agence France Presse, June 13 <http://news.yahoo.com/greek-counter-proposals-seek-avert-feared-default-051714551.html> Brussels - Greek premier Alexis Tsipras warned Greece on Saturday to prepare for a "difficult compromise" with its EU-IMF creditors as his closest advisors delivered a last-chance proposal to avert a catastrophic default by Athens. . . . "If we arrive at a viable accord, even if it is a difficult compromise, we will take up the challenge because our only criteria is to get out of the crisis," Tsipras was quoted as telling Greek officials late Friday in a government statement. In the clearest sign yet that major concessions by Athens may be on their way, Tsipras said: "The decisions and how we handle them belong to us completely, despite their difficulty." Whatever needs to be done "needs to be done quickly", deputy finance minister Dimitris Mardas told Skai TV in Athens. He predicted there would be a deal. A European source close to the negotiations told AFP that the meeting was "underway" with its resolution "open-ended", and it would possibly take several days. Across the table from the Greeks were the three institutions responsible for overseeing their bailout, the second since 2010: the EU's Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The latter are the most pro-austerity of Greece's creditors. The urgency for a deal increased exponentially on Friday when Europe's top economic officials said they had for the first time ever discussed the prospects of Athens defaulting on its debts. "In discussions, a default was mentioned as one of the scenarios that can happen when everything goes wrong," a eurozone official told AFP on condition of anonymity after talks in Bratislava Friday. The bombshell came a day after the IMF said it pulled its technical team from Brussels because it was dissatisfied with the state of the negotiations. The Athens stock market crashed 6 percent when news of the contingency plans emerged, and fears are high that markets could tumble further next week without signs of progress over the weekend. The long-running saga over Greece's refusal to agree on reforms demanded by its creditors is set to come to a head at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday. A deal to unlock the last payout of Greece's international bailout is needed by then to give national parliaments time to approve it before the bailout expires on June 30. Also on June 30, Greece faces a huge 1.6 billion euro payment to the IMF and a further 3.4 billion euros to the European Central Bank on July 20. Talk of a 'plan B' if Athens should miss payments has been a huge taboo among Greece's eurozone partners and the switching of gears is the first real sign that they are willing to walk away from the table. No specifics are known on what such a plan would look like, but on the Greek side Athens could see the introduction of capital controls, closure of banks, and the government issuing IOUs to keep the public sector financially viable. Asked if he thought the Europeans were bluffing, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said: "I hope they are." "I don't believe that any sensible European bureaucrat or politician will go down that road (of a Greek default)," the outspoken Varoufakis told BBC radio. These drastic measures would also pave the way for an exit by Greece from the euro, but officials are for now ruling out that possibility. All efforts are on a "resolution of the Greek crisis" within the current programme, a German finance ministry spokesman said on Saturday. Key to the negotiation is two red lines that the Greek government has refused to cross since it came to power in January on a promise to end austerity: no to further pension reform as well as to a demand to increase VAT on electricity. 2) PM to ministers: no elections, no referendum regardless of talks outcome The Greek Prime Minister said that his government was willing to come to a painful compromise or 'say the big no' without new elections or a referendum. by Nikos Tsitsas Times of Change, Greece, June 13 <http://www.thetoc.gr/eng/politics/article/pm-to-ministers-no-elections-no-referendum-regardless-of-talks-outcome> Alexis Tsipras sought to end speculation over the possibility of elections or a referendum being held, in a meeting yesterday with cabinet ministers and officials tasked with leading Greece’s negotiations with its creditors. With the government facing a choice between accepting a painful deal with Greece’s lenders or the road of default and a possible Grexit, many have suggested that the government may opt to call elections or a referendum in order to bolster its legitimacy – either in the event that it opts to climb down from its ‘red lines’ on pensions and reforms (thus violating its ‘anti-memorandum’ mandate) or if it chooses the path of a rift with its creditors and the eurozone. However according to government sources in yesterday’s meeting Tsipras told ministers, “Forget any thought of elections or a referendum. The government has a recent popular mandate, the large majority of the Greek people are with it and it has a comfortable majority in parliament.” “The Greek people have entrusted us with taking crucial decisions and to manage the difficulties. Nobody believed that it would be easy. The decisions and managing their outcomes belong exclusively to us, however difficult they may be.” “If we have a sustainable agreement, however difficult the compromise is we will shoulder the weight as our only criteria is to exit the crisis and the memoranda of subjugation.” “If, however, Europe seeks division and the perpetuation of our subjugation, again, we will take the major decision and deny it. We will say the big 'no' and we will fight the battle for the dignity of our people and our national sovereignty.” The statements appear to be the clearest indication yet that Alexis Tsipras is prepared to shoulder the political burden either in making a painful compromise with the lenders – one that will likely anger the left wing of his party – or in ultimately pulling the plug on Greece’s bailout agreement, overseeing a default that will likely cause at least short-term financial chaos. Should no agreement be reached with Greece’s creditors by June 30th, then the country will ultimately default on debt payments due to the IMF and the ECB. The ECB would then likely stop supporting Greek banks and capital controls would be put in place although the timeline for this remains very much unclear. . . . Following yesterday’s five hour meeting of the team of political negotiators, the Greek PM decided to send a delegation today of three ministers who will submit the Greek counter-proposals to the lenders in an attempt to secure a ‘mutually beneficial’ agreement. The latest key deadline is the 18th of June when the Eurogroup is due to meet. An agreement must be reached by then in order for it to be approved by the eurozone’s finance ministers in the meeting. The German parliament is also due to hold a session on the same day which will focus on the Greek issue. Negotiators return to Brussels The Deputy PM Yannis Dragasakis, the Minister of State Nikos Pappas and Deputy Finance Minister Efkleidis Tsakalotos returned to Brussels today where, following the intervention of the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, they will meet with representatives of the institutions as demanded by the German and French governments which have insisted that the discussion over Greece’s cash-for-reforms deal be concluded at the technical level before a political discussion can be had. According to sources, the Greek delegation will discuss the Greek counterproposals with representatives of the institutions who worked on the technical teams, while the IMF has let it be known that its representatives will be returning to the Belgian capital after they flew back to Washington in protest at Alexis Tsipras’s decision to pursue an agreement at the political level. According to European sources, the Greek delegation will also meet with Juncker, although it is stressed that the meeting will not be a substitute for negotiations with the institutions. The move by the Greek delegation to meet with technical teams of the institutions is a clear sign that the government has taken a step back and is seeking to discuss its counter proposals at a technical level with the institutions as demanded by Angela Merkel and other European leaders. That the negotiators are flying to Brussels over the weekend is being seen as an indication that the government is looking to defuse tensions and make concessions with regards to its original 47 page proposal that was rejected by the lenders. The government appears to be making a final effort to reach a compromise although it remains to be seen if the differences between the two sides can ultimately be bridged, with the government already operating on the edges of what it feels it can accept. Among the lenders' demands that the Greek government deeply opposes are pension cuts and VAT reform that would see electricity taxed at the high rate of 23%. For these and other measures the government will propose measures it says will be fiscally equivalent. However whether their figures agree with those of the institutions is very much an open question. 3) Tsipras rules out vote if agreement is deemed ‘viable’ I Kathimerini, Athens, June 13 <http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_13/06/2015_551028> . . . Tsipras acknowledges that it will not be easy to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the discussions with creditors, sources added, but also believes that if there is an offer on the table – even one that represents a “difficult compromise” – that paves the way for Greece to exit the crisis and put the bailout agreements behind, it is the government’s duty to sign it. His party is waiting for an agreement with great expectations as MPs and SYRIZA members want to see the details of the deal before they position themselves regarding whether they will accept the settlement or not. A particularly important element for SYRIZA officials is whether the institutions will make a clear reference to debt relief. “The party’s reaction will depend on whether the possible agreement includes a commitment to the debt issue,” a party official who preferred to remain anonymous told Kathimerini. “It is not enough to have a vague, verbal reference. It has to be a binding framework with a specific timetable and intermediate steps.” _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
