Fra Guardian
Evening summary
Time for a quick recap, while we await further developments in Brussels.
The leaders of Germany, France and Greece are due to hold a meeting tonight to discuss the measures the Greek government must take to receive desperately needed bailout loans.
Alexis Tsipras, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande will speak on the sidelines of the EU-Latin America summit, (having wolfed down sole fillet and an intriguing strawberry pudding).
The meeting comes amid rumours that Germany might be prepared to give up some ground in the ongoing negotiations, as my colleague Phillip Inman explains:
According to the reports, the chancellor Angela Merkel is prepared to accept a much-reduced reform programme, slimmed down to just one or two areas as part of an initial package, to salvage a deal with Greece and prevent it exiting the eurozone.
Shares on the FTSE 100 moved ahead 76 points or 1.1%, while the German Dax and French CAC jumped 2.4% and 1.75%, respectively.
The European commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, which have lent Greece €240bn (£175bn) between them, had until recently demanded all-encompassing reforms in return for the last tranche of bailout funds worth €7.6bn.
News agency Bloomberg said it spoke to at least two German officials close to the bailout talks who described the compromise deal as a possible way to end the impasse between the radical leftist Greek government and its creditors.
The report, later denied by the German government as official policy, followed statements by Merkel and the French president, François Hollande, that they were ready to meet Greece’s embattled prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, at a summit in Brussels.
Earlier, Merkel had raised hopes of progress by telling reporters “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”.
The European Central Bank has also shown it is still willing to support Greece, by raising the emergency liquidity on offer to its banks by another 2.3 billion euros.
There is talk tonight that Athens could indeed shift its position, and accept its creditors proposal of a 1% primary budget surplus this year. It’s not clear, though, which cuts or tax rises it would implement to pay for this (or if it would be politically tenable)
And here’s that menu:
Greek media: Tsipras might accept 1% primary surplus
Media reports in Athens are suggesting that the Greek prime minister could yield on a major sticking point: creditors’ demand for a primary surplus of 1% of GDP this year.
Helena Smith reports from Athens
Regular readers will recall that the government itself proposed the budget surplus should not exceed 0.6 % in its own 47-page proposal, submitted to creditors last week.
The news portal Newsit.gr is quoting commissioner Pierre Moscovici as saying:
“we are closer than ever before to a deal.”
An agreement may well be sealed when the Greek prime ministerAlexis Tsipras sits down for talks again with EU commission president Jean Claude Juncker tomorrow.
