While waiting for tomorrow's decisive Eurogroup and Thursday's EU Council, the first timid opening comes from the G20 in Istanbul for a bridging solution that could guarantee another six months of survival for the Greece, giving the parties the necessary time to enter into new long-term agreements. The short-term plan could include the extension of the current financial assistance program monitored by the Troika.
Brussels puts on the handbrake, but confirms its willingness to prevent Greece from leaving the euro: "There is currently no ten-point plan from the Commission, many contacts are currently underway, including contacts between President Juncker and Greek premier Tsipras – said a spokeswoman for the European Commission –. The only plan we have is to keep Greece in the Eurozone”.
In the wake of the rumours, however, theeuro it returned above the threshold of 1,13 dollars. There Athens Stock Exchange rises by more than three percentage points. Business Square rises instead of 1,8%, while the BTP-Bund spread it fell to a session low of 124 basis points, after hitting a session high of 133.
The compromise hypothesis, up to now always excluded by the EU, had been anticipated by the French finance minister Michel Fir, who had hoped for an agreement that brings together the will of the Greek voters, who by voting for Tsipras gave a slap to the monitoring missions of the troika, and the rules of the Eurozone, which ask Athens to sign a new assistance programme. “I think there is the flexibility to arrive at a short-term solution,” Sapin said.
The German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, warned that "if Greece wants to work with us, it needs a programme", but yesterday the new prime minister Alexis Tsipras said he was optimistic about the possibility of an agreement. Greek Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis has guaranteed that Athens will implement 70% of the requested reforms.
As for the OECD, the secretary general Angel Gurria, on the sidelines of the G20, has ruled out any hypothesis of 'Grexit', and is preparing to leave for Athens, where tomorrow he will meet Varoufakis and Thursday Tsipras for advice precisely on the reforms. The position of the president of the EU Commission is more detached, Jean-Claude Juncker: "I understand that Tsipras must create discontinuity with the previous government, but it is also clear that the EU's position will not change entirely to take on the entire announced programme".
From Washington, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, invites dialogue: "Europe and the IMF should work together with the new Greek government to find a way through which Greece can return to sustainable growth in the Eurozone". The German Chancellor Angela Merkel instead he is more wait-and-see: "I'm waiting for Greece to present a sustainable proposal and then we'll talk".
Words to which the Greek Defense Minister replied curtly, Panos Kammenos, leader of the nationalist Independent Greeks party, who entered the coalition government with Syriza: "What we want is an agreement - he said - but if it doesn't exist, and if we see that Germany remains rigid and aims to blow up Europe, then we have an obligation to have a plan B. Plan B is to get funding from another source. It can be the United States at best, it can be Russia, or it can be China or some other country.”
