It’s down to the wire in Greece with only hours left to rescue the country from financial devastation.
The big question that looms is whether the Eurozone group will accept or reject Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s latest debt rescue proposal which included a series of spending cuts, pension savings and tax increases. The provisions were overwhelmingly supported by the Greek Parliament but will they satisfy the European finance ministers sufficiently for them to release at least 74 billion euros ($83 billion) in financial assistance to a country on the fringes of bankruptcy?
Not all Eurozone groups agree on their next step. Germany is ready to call it quits, pointing to a less than adequate policy for solving the outstanding Greek debt and suggesting a suspension of the country for a period of five years. Many refuse to give in to another bailout loan.
“I don’t believe that we are at this point authorizing any kind of additional loan to Greece,” Finland’s Alexander Stubb said. “About half of members had the same stance as us and maybe a few had another view.”
Difference of Opinions
Other members of the group are firmly against a Grexit and are still searching for some way to save the country from going under. According to one Eurozone official, the country’s three creditor institutions -- the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank – were still considering Tsipras’s latest offer.
Greece has been bleeding cash at a rate of more than €100m a day even with withdrawal limitations of €60m a day which were imposed last week. One banker said Greece has just about run out of money by tomorrow.
“The Greek economy is moving closer to the abyss,” Slovakia’s Peter Kazimir said before the emergency European Committee meeting began.