Athens claims ‘bait-and-switch’ as EU talks fail
Commission chief’s proposal not considered, write Rebecca Christie, Corina Ruhe and Jonathan Stearns
EUROPEAN Commission president JeanClaude Juncker’s 11thhour effort to strike a deal with Greece was parried by euro-area finance ministers refusing to loosen their grip on the country’s economy.
Talks on Monday in Brussels ended abruptly and Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis claimed a bait-andswitch, saying Mr Juncker’s commission had offered a path forward that European Union (EU) finance ministers then refused to put on the table.
Instead, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem offered a different statement tying Greece to an extension of its existing programme. Mr Varoufakis rejected that proposal out of hand.
According to seven European officials with direct knowledge of the talks, the meeting unraveled from that point. Mr Dijsselbloem, who leads the finance ministers’ group, halted the proceedings, saying ministers could reconvene on Friday if there is a breakthrough.
“The next step has to come from the Greek authorities,” he says. “They have to make up their minds whether they will ask for an extension.”
Mr Varoufakis says Greece had no choice but to refuse the statement on offer. “In the history of the European Union nothing good has ever come out of ultimatum.” Greece is willing to extend the aid programme as long as the step is done on the right terms, he says.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government will now return to the bargaining table and “we are ready and willing to do whatever it takes to reach an honourable agreement over the next two days”.
Monday’s impasse comes a day after Mr Juncker took a personal stake in the Greek talks. Mr Tsipras requested a call with Mr Juncker that took place as the commission chief made a “last-ditch effort” to find common ground, an EU official said on Sunday.
Officials are trying to agree on a programme of financial support to keep Greece afloat past the end of the month when its programme expires.
Without a deal, Greece could run out of money by the end of next month, forcing Mr Tsipras to abandon his promises to the electorate or even leaving the single currency.
Mr Varoufakis says his government had been “happy” with a “splendid”, separate draft communique that was produced by European Economic Affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici before the meeting. Mr Moscovici, speaking after the meeting, called on euro-area finance ministers to be “logical, not ideological” as negotiations continue.
He urged Greece to request an extension and said concessions so far leave ample room for a deal.
“We both agreed that it could be possible to keep 70% of the current programme and to replace measures, but which have to be fully financed, up to 30%” of current requirements. “Thirty percent is not a minor room for politics.”
From Athens, the Greek government lashed out at Mr Dijsselbloem’s demands, saying it was “absurd” and “unaccept- able” to ask the country to request an extension of the rescue deal.
Euro-area officials focused on the terms of the previous bail-outs “are wasting their time”, the Greek statement says. “The insistence of some circles that the government enforce the memorandum is absurd and unacceptable.”
Austrian Finance Minister Hans-Joerg Schelling says euro-area nations must be fully on board with any aid pledges made on behalf of their taxpayers, citing public resentment towards Mr Tsipras’s election promises.
“It’s unacceptable that Greece raises pensions funded by the other countries even as in other countries pensions may be just half of what’s paid out in Greece,” he says.
Some finance chiefs countered that Greece did not put enough specific plans on the table. Greece did not present any new data or numbers in between when finance chiefs gathered last week and Monday’s meeting in Brussels, Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna says.
Nicholas Economides, professor of economics at Stern Business School, New York University, says: “Greece finds itself now closer to a new bankruptcy within the euro and potentially” leaving the currency union. “Greece could run out of money in March.”
Amid all the frustration, Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan says Greece leaving the eurozone remains “out of the question”.
“I am not worried. I am convinced that we will ultimately reach a common ground and a common decision.”
Greece has been promised €240bn under two bail-outs. Any deal might have set the stage for a follow-on aid programme or credit line that would maintain oversight by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission and the European Central Bank.
IMF MD Christine Lagarde says Greece will need to follow the rules to tap into more of its bail-out. Any review would take weeks, if not months, to see if Greece could qualify for another aid disbursement, she says.
The insistence … that the government enforce the memorandum is … unacceptable