"We are in the midst of a hard and difficult battle", thus ruled the Greek premier George Papandreou. The eyes and hopes of the Greek government are all directed towards tomorrow's European summit. Athens expects a breakthrough that will allow Greece to progress together with Europe.
These were the wishes expressed at the end of the meeting between the prime minister and the Greek head of state Karolos Papoulias. The latter spoke on the progress of negotiations between governments and private investors regarding a significant increase in the cut on payments to Greek government bonds. In the summit held on Sunday, the idea has strengthened that euro area partners are requesting an increase of up to 60% of the denomination on the nominal value of the bonds, compared to the 21% that was formalized in July. In response, the banks' counteroffer is a 40% haircut.
Papandreou, who is leaving for Brussels for tomorrow's summit, is aware of the difficulty of lightening the public debt and hopes for coolness and cohesion among the Greek parties.
