ATHENS: European officials resumed talks on Greece’s bailout on Thursday after a day of negotiations broke up in the early hours without ending the standoff that has brought the country on the cusp of a default.
With the Greek government saying it held firm in the flurry of meetings in Brussels on Wednesday, European Union officials said the talks yielded little progress and no breakthrough was in sight. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the heads of the three creditor institutions agreed to reconvene first thing on Thursday after a few hours’ sleep. Technical experts were meeting in Brussels Thursday morning to prepare the ground for the fresh talks, with sticking points ranging from pensions and sales tax increases to debt relief.
The race for a deal is accelerating as Greece moves nearer to the June 30 expiry of its euro-area bailout without any agreement in place ensuring it can meet a payment of 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) to the International Monetary Fund that falls due the same day.
