Luxembourg, 19/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - Pressure on Athens reached the highest point on Friday 19 June to get the Greek government to issue new proposals with a view to agreement on reforms to be introduced in return for financial aid under the second Greek bailout, which expires on 30 June.
“We are close to the point where the Greek government will have to choose between accepting what I believe is a good offer of continued support or to head towards default. At the end of the day, this is, and can only be, a Greek decision and a Greek responsibility. There is still time, but only a few days. Let us use them wisely,” said the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk. From Luxembourg, European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis warned that the upcoming week was the last chance to take decisions.
The Greek government said it was working to ensure that the eurozone summit was a “success,” although Tusk said there would not be any “miracle solutions” from Europe's leaders on Monday 22 June (see EUROPE 11338). He denied rumours of introduction of capital controls as Greek banks are seeing a withdrawal of savings.
The ECB has lifted the cap on emergency lending for Greek banks. Asked about the possibility of a 'Grexit,' Italian finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan agreed that if Greece left the euro, that would change the single currency because it would no longer be irreversible. (Elodie Lamer and Mathieu Bion)