Greek leader, top EU executive clash over austerity claims

[webfact]

Greek leader, top EU executive clash over austerity claims
DEREK GATOPOULOS, Associated Press
RAF CASERT, Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's leader and a top EU official ignited a war of words on Tuesday, a rare public spat that highlights how tense the talks have become over how to save the country from financial disaster.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told lawmakers from his left-wing Syriza party that creditors were demanding sweeping pension cuts and tax hikes on medicine and electricity bills.

"It appears this is a show of strength aimed at killing any effort to counter austerity ... It's an issue that does not only concern Greece but all the peoples of Europe," he said in parliament.

But Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the EU's executive Commission, swiftly hit back, replied that he had been misrepresented.

"I am blaming the Greeks for telling things to the public, things which are not consistent with what I told the Greek prime minister," Juncker said in Brussels. "I am not in favor — and the prime minister knows that — of increasing (sales taxes) on medicine and on electricity."

Tsipras and his government have so far failed to reach an agreement with creditors to release the remaining 7.2 billion euros ($8.2 billion) in the country's bailout program. Without more loans, Greece faces defaulting on June 30 on a debt repayment of 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

The continued uncertainty caused a second day of heavy losses on the Athens Stock Exchange, whose main index closed down 4.8 percent. Greek state borrowing costs also continued to rise — a sign investors fear default. The yield on the country's two-year-bond neared 30 percent.

Germany's DAX and other European bourses recovered from early losses.

Elected on an anti-austerity platform in January, Tsipras has softened his tone somewhat in an attempt to get a deal with creditors. But he is struggling to convince skeptics in his coalition government to back a deal that would likely see an extension of bailout taxes.

Dissenters within the main Syriza party — some openly seeking a break with lenders and return to national currency — have organized anti-austerity rallies in Athens on Wednesday.

Tsipras on Tuesday met with the leaders of two opposition parties who offered his government help in the bailout negotiations. The centrist Potami and Socialist Pasok partiesde have a combined bloc of 30 seats in parliament.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised "full concentration" on efforts to reach a deal.

"I have said time and again that I would like to do everything that is possible to keep Greece in the eurozone," she said. "And I am applying myself to this task."

Germany's Bild newspaper quoted Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis as saying he wasn't planning to present any new proposals at Thursday's meeting of the eurozone's 19 finance ministers — earlier billed as potentially decisive in the standoff over Greece's bailout.

Mujtaba Rahman, of the New York-based risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said tensions between Greece and lenders could help Tsipras sell a compromise to his party.

"We continue to believe pressure on Tsipras from within Syriza will dissipate if he is seen to bring home the best possible political deal," he said. "But time is close and the risk of worst-case scenarios is certainly increasing."
___

Casert reported from Brussels. Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-17

[mihalis]

Frustrating, this Syriza mob, promised much, but cant even deliver a lolly pop....

[Credo]

Eventually, someone is going to have to put their money where there mouth is.

[Sydebolle]

What are all these guys crying about? The money is spent, gone, not recoverable.

Those who signed the Greek balance sheets prior to the admission into the EU and the introduction of the Euro in Greece should be questioned. The Greek either cheated the hell out of the entire system or those EU/Euro-checkers must have been total ignorants.
The EU then stipulated standards to which the Greek had to abide. Out of money, the EU kindly enough provided for the cash for those "standard adjustments" which were done (i.e. new, big highways, other mega infrastructure projects - see Portugal and Spain). Those EU banks (German, French etc.) borrowed the money to the Greek for adjustments they did not want and actually did not need - without checking if and when the Greek would/could pay back.
Now the BANKS are - with their backs to the wall - scared that they have to write-off EUR 1.6 billion (or whatever the Cinderella-dream amount meanwhile is). In the private industry one would let those creditors just go down, declare bankruptcy and carry on. The Mamoons of all those banks though got an EU guarantee prior to lending, hence the German and British taxpayer has to cover the EU's backside for this monumental plunder.

While there is plenty of need and space for improvements in Greece those culprits in Brussels and all those white-collar bankers all over Europe should be taken to account. If the Greek default on payment, throw out the Euro and leave the EU - while reintroducing the Drachma and declare Greece being Greece - it would create an avalanche by having the Spaniards (23% unemployment), the Portuguese (average monthly salary EUR 600), the Italians etc. to leave the EU too.

Lets face it, the EU and the Euro are the biggest failures of the 20th century - nobody wants to admit it and, unlike any private industry business plan - there is not even an exit strategy.

And those people are the socalled "Leaders"? Good luck to all of us; if Europe goes down the toilet there will be some impact worldwide.

[winstonc]

waiting for the collapse of the eu..bring it on...the bankers were not compaining before greed thats all it is..

[joebrown]

What are all these guys crying about? The money is spent, gone, not recoverable.

Those who signed the Greek balance sheets prior to the admission into the EU and the introduction of the Euro in Greece should be questioned. The Greek either cheated the hell out of the entire system or those EU/Euro-checkers must have been total ignorants.

The EU then stipulated standards to which the Greek had to abide. Out of money, the EU kindly enough provided for the cash for those "standard adjustments" which were done (i.e. new, big highways, other mega infrastructure projects - see Portugal and Spain). Those EU banks (German, French etc.) borrowed the money to the Greek for adjustments they did not want and actually did not need - without checking if and when the Greek would/could pay back.

Now the BANKS are - with their backs to the wall - scared that they have to write-off EUR 1.6 billion (or whatever the Cinderella-dream amount meanwhile is). In the private industry one would let those creditors just go down, declare bankruptcy and carry on. The Mamoons of all those banks though got an EU guarantee prior to lending, hence the German and British taxpayer has to cover the EU's backside for this monumental plunder.

While there is plenty of need and space for improvements in Greece those culprits in Brussels and all those white-collar bankers all over Europe should be taken to account. If the Greek default on payment, throw out the Euro and leave the EU - while reintroducing the Drachma and declare Greece being Greece - it would create an avalanche by having the Spaniards (23% unemployment), the Portuguese (average monthly salary EUR 600), the Italians etc. to leave the EU too.

Lets face it, the EU and the Euro are the biggest failures of the 20th century - nobody wants to admit it and, unlike any private industry business plan - there is not even an exit strategy.

And those people are the socalled "Leaders"? Good luck to all of us; if Europe goes down the toilet there will be some impact worldwide.

Where, o' where is TVF member "Costas' when we need him? Haven't seen a post from him for ages. Last thing I heard he was moving to Pattaya. I hope he's well. Maybe he's embroiled in the EU negotiations and too busy to post on TVF.

Please tell us Costas, what's the likely outcome of this potential EU catastrophe?.

[Anthony5]

Eventually, someone is going to have to put their money where there mouth is.

How about, at the end the EU will put their our money where the Greeks mouth is?

[micmichd]

Greece should get back sovereignty, leave the EU and the NATO. And ask Russia for help in case EU or IMF try to seize Greek Islands.

[Aforek]

Those who signed the Greek balance sheets prior to the admission into the EU and the introduction of the Euro in Greece should be questioned.

Goldmann Sachs http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greek-debt-crisis-how-goldman-sachs-helped-greece-to-mask-its-true-debt-a-676634.html

Grexit is the best thing for Eurozone

[Srikcir]

There is no standoff over Greece's bailout.

Just the Greecian government refusal to pay its debts. That's default and nopt a standoff.

Time this country declares bankruptcy and withdraws from the international economic community. Maybe Macedonia will take them in but there will be no more "Greece."

[Anthony5]

There is no standoff over Greece's bailout.

Just the Greecian government refusal to pay its debts. That's default and nopt a standoff.

Time this country declares bankruptcy and withdraws from the international economic community. Maybe Macedonia will take them in but there will be no more "Greece."

I'm not sure but to me this looks like a standoff.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/greece-creditors-dig-heels-eve-134205837.html

Greece and creditors take shots at each other on eve of bailout meeting, amid warnings

An advisory committee set up in parliament by members of the government said Wednesday it had recommended the non-payment of any remaining bailout debt, describing it as "illegal, illegitimate, and odious."