Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered some new proposals to the European Union over the weekend indicating a new willingness by Athens to make concessions that would help avert the country’s default.
European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, German EU official Martin Selmayr reported that there had been a "good basis for progress" at the emergency talks initiated by creditors seeking an 11th-hour bailout that could save the country from bankruptcy.
It’s been over four months since talks began between the Eurozone members and Tsipras’s leftist government and the Greek Prime Minister is heading back to Brussels today for an emergency session that could decide his country’s future.
With the June 30th deadline looming ahead, Tsipras must be willing to make compromises to his election promises if he is going to convince his creditors to keep his government in the euro.
“It’s not Merkel or others, but the Greek government itself that will decide if Greece stays in the euro zone,” said Belgian Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt.
Mutually Beneficial Proposal
Details of Tsiras’s proposals were not made available but German Prime Minister Angela Merkel in a government statement said that Greece’s proposal is “for a mutually beneficial agreement, which will give a definitive solution, and not defer the problem.”
Euro-area finance ministers are scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. in Brussels before convening with government leaders at 7 p.m. During the day, the ECB will discuss emergency funding for Greece’s banks should the negotiations prove successful.