Greece and its creditors at loggerheads as key debt meeting looms

Greece and its creditors remain at loggerheads on Monday as the new government is refusing to back down in its bid to renegotiate its massive bailout while Germany and the EU led calls for Athens to be more realistic. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told the Greek government it “must not assume that the overall mood in Europe has changed so much that the eurozone will unconditionally adopt the government programme” of new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Juncker also said he did not expect any new deal on Athens’ demands to be reached at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, despite Tsipras saying he was “optimistic that we can reach a compromise”.

I’ve always said I’ll wait for Greece to come with a sustainable proposal and then we’ll talk about this.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Tsipras is pushing for creditors to loosen the tough conditions of the 240-billion-euro ($270-billion) bailout Greece was forced to accept in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis, to allow it to spend more in order to give its economy a boost. Athens is proposing that the “toxic” fiscal obligations of its present EU-IMF bailout deal - which has seen it saddled with debt worth 1.75 times the country’s entire annual economic output - be replaced by a 10-step reform blueprint drawn up in cooperation with the OECD, a Greek finance ministry source said Monday.

I am optimistic that we can reach a compromise.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

Politics Greece