The Greek government in Brussels willing to “a difficult compromise” – Tribune de Genève

“If we reach a viable agreement, even if the compromise is difficult, we will meet this challenge because our only criteria is the exit from the crisis,” said the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, during a Friday night meeting with employees. These statements were cited in a statement Saturday, hinting that Greece is possibly willing to make further concessions.

“We have an agreement,” said Saturday the Deputy Greek Finance Minister, Dimitris Mardas .

Greek officials began in the late afternoon in Brussels a meeting with representatives of the IMF, the ECB and the ESM – the financial crisis management system of the euro area – in a European source.

 IMF and Commission divided

The presence of the IMF is especially important that the Greek government must agree as soon as the institution of Washington, more than with its other creditors. June 30, Athens has to repay 1.6 billion euros in loans from the IMF and doubts remain about its ability to meet that deadline without the release of 7.2 billion remaining to be paid as part of its plan help.

But the release of this assistance depends on the implementation of reforms that Athens and its creditors écharpent for nearly four months. The IMF had put a damper on Thursday saying that differences “major” remained and that an agreement still seemed far away.

According to a German newspaper, tensions would have occurred in recent days between the IMF and the Commission . The IMF had “torpedoed” a compromise agreement submitted by the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and providing for a deferral of pension cuts in exchange for equivalent efforts on the military budget.

main point on which negotiators focus is the level of the primary surplus (calculated excluding debt service), which determines the amount of savings or additional revenues to achieve in the country.

Call launched by the Greek government

The creditors demand it reaches 1% this year and the Greeks have proposed so far 0.75%. According to the Greek daily Naftéromporiki, they could offer 0.9%, a level that would be achieved by eliminating the reduction of VAT applied in the Greek islands.

In exchange, the Greek government wants a “sustainable” agreement that is to say the continued funding of the country after the expiration of his aid package on June 30 He would particularly obtain access to unused funds, such as for banks (10.9 billion).

He wants a commitment by creditors to discuss a debt restructuring, which should amount to 180% this year. (ats / Newsnet)

(Created: 06/13/2015, 11:01 p.m.)