The Seven (G7) Summit of industrial nations will meet on Sunday in the Bavarian Alps but the focus will almost certainly be on Greece’s debit crisis.
Host Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande have called on their partners from Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United States for their fourth emergency phone call in 10 days as Tsipras tries to break a deadlock between Athens and its international creditors.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is confident that a deal is drawing closer but pointed to the current conditions imposed by international creditors in exchange for more bailout money are “clearly unrealistic.”
He told Merkel and Hollande on Thursday that the proposals to unlock bailout funds “can’t be the basis for a deal.” According to Tsipras, the latest proposal was an “unpleasant surprise,” adding that Athens is not ready to “succumb to the irrational, blackmailing demands of our creditors.”
“The Greek government cannot consent to unreasonable proposals that call for devastating measures for pensioners and Greek families,” he said. “I want to believe that it was a bad negotiating trick and will be withdrawn.”
Deadline Approaching
The two sides can’t seem to break the deadlock and Greece’s June 30th deadline is getting closing. Without a deal with the IMF, Athens could default on its loans within a very short time with the possibility of being pushed out of the Eurozone bloc altogether and causing instability in the international currency markets.
Greece notified the International Monetary Fund on Thursday that it had no option but to postpone once again the 300 million-euro ($333 million) payment that was due Friday. Instead, it offered to bundle the last three payments together by the end of the month. IMF allows bundling but views this practice as a sign that following four months of negotiations, Athens is preparing for a possible collapse of talks.