Greece finally presents debt plan to creditors
Proposal raises hopes nation can get rescue deal
ATHENS, Greece — Greece finally met a deadline that counted Thursday and made a series of sweeping proposals that its creditors needed by midnight to set off a mad rush toward a weekend deal to stave off a financial collapse of the nation.
The package met longstanding demands by creditors to impose wideranging sales-tax hikes and cuts in state spending for pensions that the leftleaning Greek government had long resisted.
It raised hopes that Greece can get the rescue deal that will prevent a catastrophic exit from the euro after key creditors said they were open to discussing how to ease the country’s debt load, a longtime sticking point in their talks.
Plan up for vote
In the text of proposals sent by Athens late Thursday, the government conceded to demands it previously had refused to accept — mostly on moving various categories of goods and services to higher sales tax rates — in exchange for a new $59 billion bailout package.
The government said the proposals would be voted on by Greece’s parliament late Friday before an emergency summit Sunday of all 28 European Union leaders.
After months of footdragging despite impending chaos, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met a midnight deadline with more than an hour to spare. The spokesman for eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem tweeted it was “important for institutions to consider these (proposals) in their assessment” of the Greek situation.
Finance officials from the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund were to fine comb through the proposals on Friday before the 19 eurozone finance ministers assess them on Saturday. In ideal circumstances, a summit of the full European Union would be able to approve them on Sunday.
Earlier Thursday, Donald Tusk of Poland, who chairs the EU summits, indicated that European officials would make an effort to address Greece’s key request for debt relief.
“The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an equally realistic proposal on debt sustainability from the creditors. Only then will we have a win-win situation,” Tusk said.
Greece has long argued its debt is too high to be paid back and that the country requires some form of debt relief. The International Monetary Fund agrees with the premise, but key European states like Germany have resisted the idea.
Germany still wary
On Thursday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the possibility of some kind of debt relief would be discussed over coming days, though he cautioned it may not provide much help.
“The room for maneuver through debt reprofiling or restructuring is very small,” he said.
Making Greece’s debt more sustainable would likely involve lowering the interest rates and extending the repayment dates on its bailout loans. Germany and many other European countries rule out an outright debt cut, arguing it would be illegal under European treaties.
The last-minute maneuvers come as Greece’s financial system teeters on the brink of collapse. It has imposed restrictions on banking transactions since June 29.