Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will have a sidelines meeting with the leaders of Germany and France and top European Union officials today at the EU summit. Tsipras will ask for liquidity and clarification of the February 20th agreement.
The Greek prime minister will meet today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsellbloem and European Council President Donald Tusk. He will ask for a solution to Greece’s serious liquidity problem and discuss details of the February 20th deal and the next steps needed until June 20, when the bailout extension ends.
Athens has insisted that the ECB president should be present in the meeting on the grounds that Draghi’s refusal to inject much-needed additional liquidity to Greek banks by accepting the issuing of more Treasury bills is a unilateral act, contrary to the February agreement. Tsipras will also ask that Athens receives 1.9 billion euros from profits from Greek bonds.
The Greek premier will also request that certain issues of the February 20 agreement should be clarified. For instance, the bill on tackling the humanitarian crisis that was voted in Greek Parliament on Wednesday has been considered a unilateral act by creditors. The Greek side insists that the humanitarian crisis bill was included in the agreement.
On the other side, creditors will insist that the agreement is a four-month extension of the previous bailout program that requires completion of the fifth review before the disbursement of the final 7.2 billion tranche, the only funding Greece can receive for the next three months.
Lenders want to see that reforms and measures required are implemented by the Greek government and that Athens should not proceed with unilateral actions.
On Monday, there is a scheduled meeting in Berlin between the Greek prime minister and the German Chancellor. Speaking in the German Parliament shortly before the EU summit, Merkel said she is looking forward to the meeting and she expects that the two leaders will talk in detail and possibly argue. However, she added, there won’t be a solution to the Greek issue on Monday.
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