EUROZONE-GREECE/HOLLANDE France's Hollande calls Greece back to the negotiation table

Record ID: 149014

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/HOLLANDE France's Hollande calls Greece back to the negotiation table
  • Date: 29th June 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JUNE 29, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL PALACE FRENCH PRIME MINISTER, MANUEL VALLS, LEAVING AFTER CABINET MEETING ON GREECE (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH PRESIDENT, FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, SAYING: "There are a few hours left before the negotiation is definitively closed, in particular for the prolongation of the Greek aid programme. I wish, if the
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAF3WPYUJT9PXR08A7IIURKLJF9
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French President Francois Hollande made a last-ditch appeal on Monday (June 29) to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to return to the negotiating table with creditors, saying only a few hours remained for a deal.
    Athens shocked its creditors by announcing on Saturday a July 5th referendum on aid talks, prompting eurozone finance ministers to say it had interrupted the talks. It now has less than 48 hours to pay back 1.6 billion euros of IMF loans.
    Ministers from Hollande's Socialist government were early backers of Tsipras' leftist administration after it won January elections. Paris has long sought a compromise but Hollande's comments made clear the ball was now in Athens' court.
    Hollande, like his finance minister Michel Sapin earlier in the morning, said France remained ready to help but that it was now up to the Greeks to decide if they wanted to stay in the euro or not.
    "There are a few hours left before the negotiation is definitively closed, in particular for the prolongation of the Greek aid programme. I wish, if the Greeks, if their government, so decide, that talks resume but it's for them and them only to decide so. France is available - it was the reason for this morning's meeting - is always available for the dialogue to resume today or tomorrow. Today a deal is still possible, tomorrow that will depend on the Greeks' response to the referendum they are being faced with," he said after an emergency French cabinet meeting on Greece.
    Tsipras' government saw its early hopes of building an anti-austerity alliance with France dashed when Paris insisted it would act jointly with Germany over Greece's debt crisis.
    But, as a Socialist head of state in a country with strong sympathies for the austerity-hit Greek people, Hollande can ill afford to seem to be the one cutting off ties with Athens and pushing it closer to an exit of the eurozone.
    Eurozone officials said France alone agreed to Greece's request to discuss an extension of the bailout at Saturday's Eurogroup before being slapped down.
    Departing from Germany's more hawkish line in recent weeks, France has repeatedly said no one can afford failure - not only Greece, but also the rest of the eurozone.
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