Greece showdown: Left-wing government fails to reach bailout deal with EU

Greece’s new anti-austerity government failed to reach a deal with its European partners Thursday on renegotiating its huge bailout, with talks now set to go down to the wire next week. Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis set out Athens’ proposals for a new debt programme at an emergency meeting with his counterparts from the 19-country eurozone in Brussels. As he made his case more than 15,000 people turned out on Athens streets Wednesday evening in a display of support for the government’s programme, according to police. But Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup of eurozone ministers, said six hours of talks produced no agreement on an extension of Greece’s $270 billion EU-IMF bailout programme.

We had intense and constructive discussions but there was not enough progress at this point to reach joint conclusions.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup of eurozone ministers

Greece’s bailout is due to expire at the end of February and failure to agree an extension would see Greece default on its giant debts, almost inevitably meaning that it would crash out of the euro. Talks will continue on Monday in Brussels - they’re probably be the last chance before any new deal could be put to national parliaments for approval before the current bailout ends.

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