EUROZONE-GREECE/EUROGROUP END Eurogroup meeting breaks up without Greek debt deal

Record ID: 152066

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/EUROGROUP END Eurogroup meeting breaks up without Greek debt deal
  • Date: 24th June 2015
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JUNE 24, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EUROGROUP PRESIDENT, JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, WALKING OUT OF BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (English) EUROGROUP PRESIDENT, JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, SAYING: "I shall be very brief, we have just informed the ministers on the process and the progress being made so far, unfortunately we have not reached an agre
  • Embargoed: 9th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACDFN9JINQ1K6R8L2XEU5RRPAY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greece and EU finance ministers hit a new impasse on Wednesday (June 24) as creditors accused Athens of failing to compromise despite a looming default next week that risks pushing it out of the euro.
    The Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers wound up a meeting on Wednesday evening after little more than an hour because no deal was ready for them to discuss.
    "Unfortunately we have not reached an agreement yet, but we are determined to continue work, this work will go on during the night, if necessary, so we've now adjourned the meeting and we will reconvene at one o'clock tomorrow (1100GMT) in order to take stock of the situation," the chairman of the group of eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said after the meeting.
    With European Union leaders due in Brussels for a summit on Thursday (June 25) evening, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was set to hold late night talks with representatives of creditor institutions in the hope a deal could be reached before eurozone finance ministers reconvene.
    EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that an agreement was still possible, and indeed necessary.
    "We talked about the priorities which have to be present in the agreement that we're working towards, we haven't yet reached an agreement, we are going to continue to work, and so the meeting has been adjourned and we are going to pursue it in search of the agreement which is still possible and more than ever necessary. We still want Greece to stay in the eurozone, to stay in the right conditions, with solid reforms and a certain future. That's what we're going to work on," Moscovici said.
    Among key unresolved disputes were Greek demands for debt restructuring, which several eurozone ministers rejected, as well as differences over reforming Greece's costly pensions system.
    German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, whose country is the biggest creditor, said preparations for a cash-for-reform agreement had barely advanced.
    The talks are especially fraught because there is so little time left to reach a deal before Greece has to make a repayment to the IMF on June 30, the day its current bailout expires.
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