Brussels, 09/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - In Luxembourg on Thursday 9 July, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said that realistic proposals from Greece should be accompanied by “similarly realistic proposals on debt sustainability from the creditors, and only then will we have a win-win situation”. Without this, he explained, “we will continue to dance the lethargic dance we have been dancing for the last five months”.
It is, however, hard to say how the states of the eurozone may step into the breach Tusk has opened up. When the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, announced that a referendum would be held in the country, the eurozone promised to implement the agreement of November 2012, which basically states that other measures are possible under certain conditions, but would be designed to act on interest rates or loan maturities, rather than making any actual cuts.
“Debt sustainability is not feasible without a haircut and I think the IMF is correct in saying that”, said the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, at a conference in Frankfurt on Thursday. “There cannot be a haircut because it would infringe the system of the European Union”, he added. However, he considers that there is very little leeway to redesign the debt. A classic haircut is out of the question, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that morning. Within the eurozone, the idea of a credit swap with new loans at lower interest rates, which has certain overlaps with the idea already put forward by Greece, could also be gaining ground.
Athens had until midnight on Thursday to send in its proposals. The President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, said on Thursday morning, quoted by Bloomberg, that it was very difficult to conclude the Greek dossier this time. (Elodie Lamer)