Eighteen of the nineteen Eurozone member states and the European Commission are asking Greece to play by the European rules and request a bailout program extension, thus providing enough time to discuss the future of the country’s relationship with its creditors.
The European Commission will be present at a special Eurogroup meeting in order to make the official request to Greece. The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis have both been notified that at the moment there is no solution to the country’s problem.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that “We don’t do bridge loans,” while Wolfgang Schaeuble noted that “we respect the Greek electorate’s will but the electoral will of voters in every European Union member state also has to be respected.” Unfortunately, the European government was not persuaded by Greece’s position on the issue.
Greece has no allies supporting the proposals that have been made in recent days, although many foreign leaders congratulated Tsipras’ government in its first moves. The Greek government seems completely isolated and everyone is waiting for a small gesture of goodwill to overcome the rift that has been created.
The creditors are not asking from Varoufakis to implement the measures of his predecessor, or Tsipras to conform to the policies decided by Antonis Samaras. What they wish is for the Greek government to respect the objectives set by the previous Government and the creditors, and reach those objectives in any way they wish, provided that it is well planned and calculated.
For Brussels a bailout program extension is not so tragic, and the memorandum is not as “evil” as it is portrayed in Greece.
However, Greek reality hasn’t shown any positive signs as a result of the memorandum. To the contrary, thousands of businesses have closed as a direct result of austerity measures and unemployment is more than 25%.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
