Greece Edges Closer to Default as Bailout Talks Go to the Wire

Men of Value Contributor · June 25, 2015

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Enrico Letta, Italy's former prime minister, gestures whilst speaking during an annual conference sponsored by The Economist in Athens, Greece, on Thursday, May 14, 2015. Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said access to the European Central Bank's quantitative-easing program would have been "especially positive" for Greece. Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Enrico Letta

(Bloomberg) — Greece stumbled closer to default as another day of negotiations ended in the early hours without a deal to end the standoff over bailout aid.

With the Greek government saying it held firm in the flurry of meetings in Brussels on Wednesday, European Union officials said the talks yielded little progress and no breakthrough was in sight. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the heads of the three creditor institutions agreed to reconvene first thing on Thursday after a few hours’ sleep.

The race for a deal is accelerating as Greece moves nearer to the June 30 expiry of its euro-area bailout without any agreement in place ensuring it can meet a payment of 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to the International Monetary Fund that falls due the same day.

“It’s going to the wire,” Finland’s Alexander Stubb told reporters after a meeting of euro-area finance chiefs in Brussels broke up early Wednesday. Ministers will resume at 1 p.m. Thursday, by which time “we hope to have a concrete proposal,” he said. “It’s important to keep the process going.”

Stocks retreated around the globe amid concern the Greek impasse will fester, with disagreement persisting over the conditions attached to a resumption of aid for Europe’s most indebted nation. Sticking points include pensions, sales taxes and debt relief.

On the eve of a two-day summit of fellow EU leaders that begins Thursday in Brussels, twin sessions of negotiations with Tsipras lasting some seven hours in total failed to bridge the differences with creditors.

Both sides agreed that technical teams will reconvene at 6 a.m. in Brussels, followed at 9 a.m. by the resumption of talks between Tsipras, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

–With assistance from Rebecca Christie, Mark Deen and Karl Stagno Navarra in Brussels, Birgit Jennen and Hans Nichols in Berlin and Zoe Schneeweiss in Zurich.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net; Corina Ruhe in Brussels at cruhe@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Richard Bravo

Tags:bloomberg business EU leaders Greece bailout June 30th

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