Fra Guardian:
IMF withdraws team from Brussels, criticises Greece
Serious news from Washington. The International Monetary Fund has announced that its negotiating team in Brussels is heading home!
Spokesman Gerry Rice has just told reporters that there are still “major differences” between the IMF and Greece on key issues, including pension reforms and tax rates.
Bloomberg has the story:
The IMF said that its team negotiating with Greece has left Brussels after failing to make progress on a debt deal that would help the country to avoid default.
“The ball is very much in Greece’s court,” International Monetary Fund spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters at a media briefing in Washington on Thursday. “There are major differences between us in most key areas. There has been no progress in narrowing these differences recently,” he said.
The IMF’s decision to withdraw its team comes amid increasingly sharp criticism from creditors at the Greek government’s continued refusal to bow to their demands, risking a default and ultimately an exit from the euro common currency.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde will attend a meeting of euro-area finance ministers in Luxembourg on June 18, Rice said.
“As our managing director has said many times, the IMF never leaves the table,” he said.
Another sign that creditors are losing patience with Greece.
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The FT’s Peter Spiegel has read between the lines of Juncker’s comments — he has told Tsipras that it’s time to get that deal sorted.
Left unsaid in @JunckerEU's focus on process in meeting w/@atsipras: Top-level talks are spent. Time to strike deal based on last wk's plan
— Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) June 11, 2015
That echoes Donald Tusk’s warning at lunchtime — that the time for talking is over.
Juncker and Tsipras agree to stay in ‘close contact’
Just seeing some quotes from Jean-Claude Juncker too!
He says today’s meeting with Alexis Tsipras was “Important, Interesting and Friendly”.
The Commission president also reveals that he explained a possible process which Tsipras could pursue to reach a mutuall
Alexis Tsipras has spoken briefly to a reporter has he left his meeting with Juncker.
The Greek PM said he is seeking a deal that means Greece’s debts will be “viable” in future, while also guaranteeing social cohesion.
That’s similar to his statement last night, after meeting Merkel and Hollande
Reporters in Brussels say that Alexis Tsipras’s meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker has now ended, after around two hours….
Am still not sure that Greeks will accept more bullying. Sitting here trying to work, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, it seems unreal that foreign powers think they have the right to rob ordinary Greeks of almost everything except the sunlight. I have followed this crisis first hand and often in this blog. To begin with it was with a feeling of dismay, then disbelief and now with fury….and I am not Greek!
What gambling does Tusk refer to? Whether Greeks should hold out for a second crust of bread or be content with one? Does the future of the Eurozone depend on that?
The Greek stock market is hitting new highs, up 8% now as optimism builds….
