Greece on Monday entered the final stretch of tortuous talks with its international creditors on a bankruptcy-saving loan deal, with the government calling for a breakthrough by the end of the month. "A deal is required immediately, this is why we are talking about the end of May, to resolve these critical liquidity issues," government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told reporters. Greece''s new radical Syriza-led government and its EU-IMF creditors have been stuck in a deadlock for four months over the reforms needed to release a final 7.2 billion euros ($8.2 billion) in bailout funds.
European economic affairs chief Pierre Moscovici lamented that the Greek anti-austerity government seemed more interested in ditching promised reforms than in making proposals of its own. "They are more eager to say what they don''t want to keep in the programme than to propose alternatives," Moscovici told a news conference in Berlin, while insisting that "some progress" had been made in some areas in recent days. Later Monday, To Vima daily reported a European Commission proposal to break the deadlock.
It offered to give Athens next month a combined 3.7 billion euros in EU and ECB funds from the ongoing bailout in return for legislation on fiscal measures worth 5.0 billion euros, To Vima said. Both the Greek government and the European Commission could not confirm the proposal reported by the media. "We are not aware of such a proposal. We continue to work towards a comprehensive deal, together with the ECB and the IMF, as well as the Eurogroup. Progress is being made, albeit at a slow pace," Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said in Brussels.