Greece: Eurozone the country’s fate in his hands – Liberation

The euro area should make Saturday a decisive opinion on the proposals of the Greek government reforms, which revived, despite the divisions, the hope of an agreement on a new aid plan in Athens likely to avoid an exit of Greece from the euro area.

The finance ministers of the euro zone meeting in Brussels will examine from 1300 GMT the latest proposals made by Athens, including on VAT, pensions and privatization, which could lead to a bailout plan for Greece valued at € 74 billion at least, the third since 2010.

Already welcomed by the creditor institutions, this plan could, if it receives the green light of the Eurogroup, as a basis for a new round of negotiations would be approved Sunday by the 28 countries of the European Union, met in summit.

In the meantime, the 19 states of the euro zone will have overcome their differences if the more conciliatory, starting with France, deem credible proposals Athens, it will remain hard to convince the camp, led by Germany and reluctant to grant new aid to Greece after two planes in the amount of EUR 240 billion

Even if Greece and its partners agree this weekend, all will not be played. At least eight parliaments must give their approval to the aid package, even before the German Bundestag vote twice.

– ’50% probability ‘-

“The question now is to convince the toughest, Germany, the Baltic countries,” confided a European source close to the negotiations.

Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania, the last country to have joined it six months ago the euro area, there is also “50% chance” of reaching an agreement this week -end – and only on condition that the Greek text is “profoundly changed”

The three creditor institutions of Greece. – European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – have studied the text that they judged “positive” according to a European source, before sending their views to the euro area.

On the night of Friday to Saturday, the Greek Parliament gave its green light to the government of radical left Alexis Tsipras to negotiate this new plan. Despite the massive victory of the No 61% during the July 5 referendum, Parliament broadly endorsed the proposal, which is broadly in line what so wished creditors on most sensitive issues.

Alexis Tsipras urged members to authorize it to negotiate the plan, recognizing that the government had made “mistakes” that the text was “very remote” promises of the left coalition Syriza, but that it was finally the best, causing many defections in its majority.

“No turning back” headlined Saturday the Greek daily Avgi, the showcase of Syriza, while the right-wing newspaper Eleftheros Typos demanded “What Greece is saved “.

Seven to eight thousand people have also demonstrated Friday night in Athens to express their discontent against what they see as a betrayal, while activity in the country is slowed since the closure of banks and the introduction of capital controls, June 29 “Syriza supports capitalism,” accused a banner.

The closing of Greek banks is expected until Monday but the Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas hinted Friday that she might still be prolonged, with arrangements

-. And now, the debt –

This allowed the Greek government to keep our heads up, after all, was the hope expressed by Alexis Tsipras to see finally open “a serious debate on the debt restructuring” Greek, which reaches 180% of the country’s GDP, or 320 billion euros.

The subject divides Europeans but Athens insists on the question, with the support of France displayed, the IMF, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk and many economists.

Berlin Friday saw “very little wiggle room” to restructure the debt. Nevertheless, a kind of advanced compared to Thursday when Chancellor Angela Merkel had said that a reduction of Greek debt was “out of question”. The most likely option is that of a “light restructuring” of debt.

The new Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said for his part that “many requests to Greece on debt will be accepted, “citing an exchange of 27 billion euros of bonds between the ECB and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), long advocated by the Greeks, which would allow him to avoid the pitfall of the 7 billion euros to repay to the ECB in July and August.