After lots of anger and disagreement the Eurogroup ended on Thursday afternoon without a deal. Exiting the meeting, Greek Finance Mnister Yanis Varoufakis said that the Eurogroup decided to continue talks today and tomorrow and thus on the two documents submitted both by the creditors and Greece. “Discussion will continue until we get a deal,” Varoufakis said adding that “some finance ministers criticized institutions’ proposals.”
According to Greek officials, Varoufakis will try to persuade his eurogroup counterparts to back Athens’ proposal from earlier this week.
The next Eurogroup meeting is most likely to take place on Saturday, while “earlier meeting” is not excluded.
The Euro leaders currently in Brussels for the EU summit are rather disappointed about the failure. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said to have made an important statement – but not officially , so behind closed doors and away from the cameras.
But two participants told everything to Reuters.
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel told European centre-right party leaders on Thursday there must be a debt deal with Greece before financial markets reopen next Monday, two participants in the meeting said.
She also told the closed-door meeting of leaders of the European People’s Party before an EU summit in Brussels that Germany “will not be blackmailed” by Greece, they said.” (full story Reuters)
From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the International Monetary Fund said that Greece will not be technically in default if it would miss the payment of June 30th.
IMF’s spokesman Gerry Rice said “if Greece misses 30 June payment, not technically in default, but the the IMF hopes that Greece will do make the payment.
Gerry Rice said also that IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde would notify the fund’s executive board promptly of any nonpayment.
Missing a payment to IMF is not technically a default anyway and that’s why several ratings agencies like Standard & Poor’s said that they will not downgrade Greece is payment missed.
Earlier this month, Christine Lagarde said claimed that she would declare Greece default the next day Athens would miss the payment.
“Greece will be in default with the International Monetary Fund at the start of July if it fails to make a repayment on June 30th because there is no grace period or possibility to delay, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.
“It will be in default, it will be in arrears vis-a-vis the IMF on July 1, but I hope it is not the case, I really do,” Lagarde told reporters following a meeting with the Luxembourg finance minister.
“There is no grace period or two-month delay, as I have seen here and there,” she said, speaking before a eurozone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
Here is to note that had Greece dropped just the payment of June 5th or another one of the four payments in June, the IMF would have granted it a month time before declaring “Greece’s default with the IMF. But according to Lagarde, there is no such option if a member has already bundled together several payments.” (KTG June 18th)
Can she do it? Alessandro Leipold, Chief Economist LisbonCouncil, a Brussels-based think tank, says that Lagarde is overstating her case and uploaded some of the IMF’s rules.
Has all this default pressure being in vain?
