BBC Online :
Eurozone finance chiefs are gathering in Brussels for a meeting that could decide whether new Greek proposals are sufficient to secure a third bailout and prevent a possible eurozone exit.
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned of a tough meeting ahead, saying there is a “major issue of trust” over Greece’s ability to implement reforms.
Greece’s parliament overnight backed PM Alexis Tsipras’s new proposals.
The plan includes measures that were rejected in last Sunday’s referendum.
Follow the latest updates here The creditors – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – have sent a first joint assessment to the eurozone ministers.
“Under certain conditions, they jointly see the proposals as a basis for negotiation,” an EU official told Reuters.
Technical experts from the EU and the IMF have recommended that Greece’s latest proposals for economic reforms and budget cuts can be a basis for negotiating a new international bailout.
That’s an important step, and if approved it should be enough to prevent Greece sliding into bankruptcy. But eurozone finance ministers will also want to have their say, and opinion is divided.
Some countries are optimistic: they believe Greece has at the eleventh hour
come up with a serious and credible plan. Others are much less certain. A huge lack of trust has developed over the past few months, and there are grave doubts in many countries about whether Greece will ever implement many of these reforms even if they are agreed on paper.
Greece is asking creditors for €53.5bn ($59.47bn; £38.4bn) to cover Greece’s debts until 2018, but the amount of the new bailout could reach €74bn, as Greece is seeking a restructuring of its massive debt, which it says is unsustainable.
Of the €74bn, €58bn could come from the EU’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, with €16bn from the IMF, sources said.
Greece’s creditors have already provided more than €200bn in two bailouts over the past five years. The second expired on 30 June, when Greece fell into arrears on an IMF loan.
A euro working group held a technical review of the new proposals in Brussels on Saturday morning.
The 19 eurozone finance ministers will now review the proposals and decide whether they form the basis for a new loan deal, and whether to supply Greece with interim funding.
There will then be a meeting of Eurogroup leaders in Brussels on Sunday afternoon, followed two hours later by a full meeting of EU leaders.
Eurozone finance chiefs are gathering in Brussels for a meeting that could decide whether new Greek proposals are sufficient to secure a third bailout and prevent a possible eurozone exit.
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned of a tough meeting ahead, saying there is a “major issue of trust” over Greece’s ability to implement reforms.
Greece’s parliament overnight backed PM Alexis Tsipras’s new proposals.
The plan includes measures that were rejected in last Sunday’s referendum.
Follow the latest updates here The creditors – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – have sent a first joint assessment to the eurozone ministers.
“Under certain conditions, they jointly see the proposals as a basis for negotiation,” an EU official told Reuters.
Technical experts from the EU and the IMF have recommended that Greece’s latest proposals for economic reforms and budget cuts can be a basis for negotiating a new international bailout.
That’s an important step, and if approved it should be enough to prevent Greece sliding into bankruptcy. But eurozone finance ministers will also want to have their say, and opinion is divided.
Some countries are optimistic: they believe Greece has at the eleventh hour
come up with a serious and credible plan. Others are much less certain. A huge lack of trust has developed over the past few months, and there are grave doubts in many countries about whether Greece will ever implement many of these reforms even if they are agreed on paper.
Greece is asking creditors for €53.5bn ($59.47bn; £38.4bn) to cover Greece’s debts until 2018, but the amount of the new bailout could reach €74bn, as Greece is seeking a restructuring of its massive debt, which it says is unsustainable.
Of the €74bn, €58bn could come from the EU’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, with €16bn from the IMF, sources said.
Greece’s creditors have already provided more than €200bn in two bailouts over the past five years. The second expired on 30 June, when Greece fell into arrears on an IMF loan.
A euro working group held a technical review of the new proposals in Brussels on Saturday morning.
The 19 eurozone finance ministers will now review the proposals and decide whether they form the basis for a new loan deal, and whether to supply Greece with interim funding.
There will then be a meeting of Eurogroup leaders in Brussels on Sunday afternoon, followed two hours later by a full meeting of EU leaders.
