BRUSSELS // Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras lashed out at his country’s creditors ahead of critical talks on Wednesday, denting hopes of a final debt deal to prevent Athens from defaulting and leaving the euro.
The leftist leader flew to Brussels for a crunch meeting with the heads of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank before eurozone finance ministers try to thrash out an agreement.
But at the last minute Athens said it had rejected new proposals that the EU-IMF lenders had issued in response to the eleventh-hour reform plan submitted by Greece this week to win approval for vital bailout funds.
Hardline Germany said there was a long way to go before any deal, while eurozone stocks dipped over doubts that an accord will be ready for EU leaders to rubber-stamp at a summit on Thursday.
“This strange position maybe hides two things: either they do not want an agreement or they are serving specific interests in Greece,” Mr Tsipras said minutes before the talks.
“The repeated rejection of equivalent measures by certain institutions never occurred before – neither in Ireland nor Portugal,” he tweeted, referring to bailouts to those two countries.
Greece and its creditors have been locked in a stand-off since the radical Syriza party was elected in January, with the EU-IMF demanding reforms before unlocking the last €7.2 billion (Dh29.6bn) of Greece’s bailout before it expires on June 30.
* Agence France-Presse
