{"id":133803,"date":"2015-07-12T14:56:01","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T14:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=133803"},"modified":"2015-07-12T15:24:06","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T15:24:06","slug":"greek-talks-extremely-hard-merkel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=133803","title":{"rendered":"Greek talks extremely hard &#8211; Merkel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Germany&#8217;s Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the talks on Greece&#8217;s debt rescue &#8220;extremely difficult&#8221; and ruled out &#8220;agreement at any price&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She was speaking as she arrived in Brussels for a meeting of the other 18 eurozone leaders to discuss the deal.<\/p>\n<p>They are considering proposals by eurozone finance ministers which would impose tough conditions on Athens.<\/p>\n<p>Greece risks being ejected from the eurozone if a deal to rescue it from financial collapse is not reached.<\/p>\n<p>Finnish Finance Minister Alex Stubb said one condition in the ministers&#8217; proposal requires Greece to implement new laws by Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Greece will also be required to introduce tough conditions on labour reform, VAT and taxes, and tough measures on privatisation and privatisation funds, Mr Stubb told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>The head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said a &#8220;couple of big issues&#8221; remain which would be left to the heads of government to rule on, though he did not give details.<\/p>\n<div id=\"84228771\" class=\"media-placeholder narrative-video-placeholder enabled\" data-media-type=\"video\" data-media-meta=\"{&quot;duration&quot;:&quot;PT20S&quot;,&quot;available&quot;:true,&quot;image&quot;:{&quot;height&quot;:360,&quot;width&quot;:640,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/c.files.bbci.co.uk\\\/12D1A\\\/production\\\/_84228077_84228076.jpg&quot;,&quot;altText&quot;:&quot;Alexis Tsipras&quot;,&quot;copyrightHolder&quot;:&quot;BBC&quot;,&quot;originCode&quot;:&quot;cpsprodpb&quot;},&quot;mimeType&quot;:&quot;application\\\/xml&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/playlists.bbc.co.uk\\\/news\\\/world-europe-33499218A\\\/playlist.sxml&quot;,&quot;externalId&quot;:&quot;p02wwn2y&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Greek PM Alexis Tsipras: \\u0022We can reach an agreement tonight if all parties want it\\u0022&quot;,&quot;allowOffSiteEmbedding&quot;:false,&quot;live&quot;:false,&quot;entityType&quot;:&quot;Version&quot;,&quot;durationInSeconds&quot;:20}\"><\/div>\n<p>Mrs Merkel told reporters that the eurozone leaders would be considering whether &#8220;the conditions are met&#8221; to start negotiations on a third bailout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what is at stake, nothing more and nothing less,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>But she warned that there would be &#8220;no agreement at any price&#8221;, adding: &#8220;We have to make sure the pros outweigh the cons &#8211; for Greece&#8217;s future, for the entire eurozone and the principles of our collaboration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Tsipras was more upbeat, telling reporters: &#8220;I&#8217;m here ready for an honest compromise&#8230; we can reach an agreement tonight if all parties want it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape body-width no-caption\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/media\/images\/76020000\/jpg\/_76020974_line976.jpg\" alt=\"null\" width=\"464\" height=\"2\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The <\/strong>new austerity measures submitted by Greece<strong> include:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">tax rise on shipping companies<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">unifying VAT rates at standard 23%, including restaurants and catering<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">phasing out solidarity grant for pensioners by 2019<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">\u20ac300m ($332m; \u00a3216m) defence spending cuts by 2016<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">privatisation of ports and sell-off of remaining shares in telecoms giant OTE<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">scrapping 30% tax break for wealthiest islands<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/media\/images\/76020000\/jpg\/_76020974_line976.jpg\" alt=\"null\" width=\"464\" height=\"2\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prior to the finance ministers meeting, many had spoken of a breakdown in trust between Greece and other eurozone nations over the negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Reports on Saturday suggested that German ministers were drawing up a plan that would allow Greece to exit the eurozone temporarily if this weekend&#8217;s talks fail &#8211; something Athens says it is not aware of.<\/p>\n<p>This idea was also dismissed by France&#8217;s President Francois Hollande who said: &#8220;There is no temporary Grexit, there is a Grexit or there is not a Grexit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said France would &#8220;do everything to find a deal tonight, allowing Greece, if the conditions are met, to remain in the eurozone and allowing Europe to progress&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"idt__news ns_datapic_stat ns_datapic_stat-- newsspec_infographic_template\"><\/div>\n<p>Greece is asking creditors for \u20ac53.5bn ($59.47bn; \u00a338.4bn) to cover its debts until 2018.<\/p>\n<p>However, the amount of the new bailout could reach \u20ac74bn as Greece seeks a restructuring of its massive debt, which it says is unsustainable.<\/p>\n<p>Of the \u20ac74bn, \u20ac58bn could come from the EU&#8217;s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, with \u20ac16bn from the IMF, sources have said.<\/p>\n<p>The Greek government this week set out a new list of austerity measures to try to secure the bailout &#8211; many of which had been rejected by the Greek people in a referendum last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>As the talks drag on, Greece&#8217;s financial situation is close to collapse.<\/p>\n<p>Greece fell into arrears on an International Monetary Fund repayment on 20 June and faces a \u20ac3bn payment to the European Central Bank on 20 July.<\/p>\n<p>Banks have been closed for two weeks and a \u20ac60 daily limit on cash machine withdrawals, imposed on 28 June, remains in force for Greek citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Economy Minister Giorgos Stathakis told the BBC on Saturday that if there was a deal, banks could reopen within the week, but he admitted it could take a &#8220;few months&#8221; to remove capital controls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n<div id=\"84228558\" class=\"media-placeholder narrative-video-placeholder enabled\" data-media-type=\"video\" data-media-meta=\"{&quot;duration&quot;:&quot;PT1M35S&quot;,&quot;available&quot;:true,&quot;image&quot;:{&quot;height&quot;:360,&quot;width&quot;:640,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/c.files.bbci.co.uk\\\/BBBE\\\/production\\\/_84226084_84226083.jpg&quot;,&quot;altText&quot;:&quot;A beach in Greece&quot;,&quot;copyrightHolder&quot;:&quot;BBC&quot;,&quot;originCode&quot;:&quot;cpsprodpb&quot;},&quot;mimeType&quot;:&quot;application\\\/xml&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/playlists.bbc.co.uk\\\/news\\\/world-europe-33498109A\\\/playlist.sxml&quot;,&quot;externalId&quot;:&quot;p02wwmqy&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;\\u0027It will be very difficult to get a job\\u0027: Young Greeks consider their future&quot;,&quot;allowOffSiteEmbedding&quot;:false,&quot;live&quot;:false,&quot;entityType&quot;:&quot;Version&quot;,&quot;durationInSeconds&quot;:95}\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germany&#8217;s Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the talks on Greece&#8217;s debt rescue &#8220;extremely difficult&#8221; and ruled out &#8220;agreement at any price&#8221;. She was speaking as she arrived in Brussels for a meeting of the other 18 eurozone leaders to discuss the deal. They are considering proposals by eurozone finance ministers which would impose tough conditions [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":133812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-133803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}