Tsipras ‘confident’ of meeting debt deal deadline
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has expressed confidence that the debt-ridden country would meet an end-of-the-week deadline set by eurozone leaders to reach a bailout deal or risk leaving the euro.
“I am confident that in the next two or three days we will be able to meet the obligations in the best interests of Greece and also the eurozone,” Tsipras said in an address to the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg on Wednesday.
“Our proposals for financing our obligations and restructuring our debt will not burden European taxpayers,” he said.
He, however, said that the debt-ridden country would sign a deal with its international lenders that will mean a definitive end to Greece's protracted financial crisis.
“We demand an agreement with our neighbors but one that gives us a sign that we are exiting from the crisis and there is light at the end of the tunnel. An agreement which will bring about credible and necessary reforms,” Tsipras said.
He said that the majority of the Greek people “have no other choice but to “demand that they be given a way out.”
The Greek prime minister further said that reforms have been more “than ordinary citizens can stand.”
He said that all sides must prevent division in Europe as they try to find a solution to his country's crippling debt crisis.
“This is a European problem which requires a European solution... let us not allow it to become a divided Europe,” Tsipras.
The Greek prime minister said the country has submitted a broad proposal to get another rescue plan and will present details in the coming days.
Greece faces a Thursday deadline to present the detailed plan on the bailout deal with its creditors before a European Union summit Sunday. The deadline had earlier been set on July 2 by European Council President Donald Tusk.
Athens received two bailout packages in 2010 and 2012 worth a total of €240 billion ($272 billion) from its creditors following its 2009 economic crisis. In return for the bailouts, Athens undertook to implement harsh austerity measures, which sparked public outcry.
Greece has already defaulted on a €1.5-billion debt payment to the International Monetary Fund, which, together with the European Commission and the European Central Bank, forms the troika of Greece’s international lenders.
YH/NN/HRB
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