No deal for Greece, creditors; top-level talks resume Saturday

Greece failed again to clinch a deal with its international creditors on Thursday, setting up a last-ditch effort on Saturday to avert a default next week amid fears of financial market turmoil. Euro zone finance ministers ended their third meeting in a week without agreement after the three creditor institutions put a final cash-for-reform proposal on the table in a showdown with Athens’s leftist government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is Greece’s biggest creditor, said Greek positions on some issues seemed even to have gone into reverse.

The door is still open for the Greek side to come with new proposals or accept what is on the table.

Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem

Greece thrust its way onto the agenda of a 28-nation EU summit that had been due to focus on migration, the long-term future of the euro zone and launching a renegotiation of Britain’s membership terms. Without a deal on the weekend to unlock frozen aid, Greece, which has received two bailouts worth 240 billion euros since 2010, is set to default on a crucial repayment to the International Monetary Fund next Tuesday. That could trigger a bank run and capital controls, possibly setting Athens on a path out of the euro zone and undermining the founding principle that membership is irrevocable.

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