MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Monday's EU emergency summit was announced last Thursday after 19 eurogroup finance ministers failed to strike an agreement that would prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), due at the end of June.
On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Greece there must be a deal on its reforms plan when negotiators gather in Brussels in two days as they need to have something to build on.
A day after this warning, Tsipras put forward what his office called a final proposal, during a Sunday phone talk with EU leaders – Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Francois Hollande – and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Madras told Greece’s broadcaster ERT on Sunday that negotiators appeared to be moving toward an agreement.
“If our partners did not want a deal they would create problems for us. Everything signals a prompt agreement,” he said, adding the postponement of Greek bailout talks to Monday was “a political decision, rather than a question of liquidity.”
The negotiators have a little more than a week left to bail Athens out or let it slip into a default that could lead to its exit from both the 19-nation eurozone and the 28-member European Union.
Athens owes a whopping $350 billion to its lenders, of which $270 billion is owed to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
On Sunday, Tsipras briefed Cabinet ministers on his latest offer to EU leaders before boarding the plane for Brussels.
