Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' meeting with international creditors in Brussels extended into the early hours of Thursday morning, in an attempt to thrash out a deal that could avert a possible "Grexit."
Although the meeting went well, it ended without a deal. However, there were positive expressions from participants afterwards and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, said that there was more to come.
“We will continue our talks in a few days,” Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, told reporters after emerging in the early hours of Thursday morning from the meeting.
The European commission said: “It was a good constructive meeting. Progress was made in understanding each other’s positions on the basis of various proposals. It was agreed they will meet again. Intense work will continue.”
Tsipras: We reject some proposals
Tsipras had gone to argue for acceptance of a 47-page reform program he handed his creditors this week. Juncker was charged with presenting him with a quite different blueprint, drafted following an emergency summit of national and international leaders in Berlin on Monday.
Tsipras maintained after the meeting that the Greek proposal was the only realistic option. He said that Athens still rejected some of the creditors’ proposals but indicated that a deal was close:
“There was a constructive will from the European Commission to reach a common understanding,” he said.
Tsipras said demands by Greece's creditors for cuts in the income of poor pensioners and increases in value-added tax on power are unacceptable, highlighting what have been “red lines” in Greece’s stance since his anti-austerity Syriza party swept to power in snap elections in January.
“Ideas like cutting benefits for low-income pensioners, or raising the VAT rate for electricity by 10 percentage points, can’t be a basis for discussion,” he said.
Asked about a pending payment to the International Monetary Fund, he said that Athens would make a payment due to the IMF on Friday.
Close to deal on primary surplus
Tsipras also spoke by teleconference with Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of his meeting with Juncker, a Greek government official said.
The three agreed on the need for Greece to have lower primary surpluses.
International creditors want Greece to have a budget balance before debt servicing costs of 1 percent this year, gradually rising to 3.5 percent in 2018, euro zone officials said.
"We are very close in an agreement in the primary surpluses, that means that all the sides agreed to go further without the tough austerity measures of the past," Tsipras said.
Intra-party opposition grows stronger
The 40-year-old premier faces dissent from hardliners from within his own radical left Syriza party, some of whom openly say they prefer a rupture in negotiations and even a euro exit, to capitulation on pre-election pledges.
One of the most vocal critics of compromise has been Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis.
"The logic of a deal at any cost ... is a logic of the country's total surrender to the worst neo-colonial regime," Lafazanis was quoted as telling the news website Real.gr Wednesday.
"A deal will either be compatible with Syriza's progressive program, or it will not exist."
[AP, AFP, Reuters, Blomberg, Guardian]