ATHENS: Greece retreated from budget concessions to its creditors, setting the stage for another attempt by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to break the country’s financing deadlock.
With Greece’s financial safety net expiring on June 30, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras plans to meet the leaders of the euro area’s two biggest economies in Brussels on Wednesday. Any remaining bailout funds are off limits unless Tsipras reaches an accord with creditors.
The three-way meeting, which may take place after the first day of a summit of leaders of European Union and Latin American countries, signals the urgency in keeping Europe’s most-indebted country solvent. All the more so because talks this week have failed to make progress, according to an official directly involved in the process.
“We want Greece to stay in the euro, but whether this is achievable depends entirely on Greece,” Volker Kauder, caucus leader of Merkel’s bloc in parliament, said in Berlin. “The conditions have to be met.”
