Galery

1

A meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, a meeting between Alexis Tsipras and the leading figures among the creditors, a meeting of the Eurogroup and an EU summit will make up the most crucial day for Greece since the beginning of the crisis.

The central bankers in the euro zone will sit again at 11:30 am Greek time to reconsider the liquidity state of Greek banks. It will be their third meeting within five days following the provision of emergency liquidity totalling 2.9 billion by the European Central Bank to the Greek banking system on Wednesday and Friday.

Even this amount, however, proved insufficient to cover the massive withdrawal of deposits that began last Monday after Athens and its creditors again failed to reach an agreement on 14 June. There are currently no accurate data on the amount of capital flight from Greek banks but according to available estimates, more than 4 billion euro was supposedly withdrawn over the course of just seven days.

Two hours after the session of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank there will be a meeting of the finance ministers of euro zone member states. Before it, at twelve o’clock, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will attend a meeting with Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Governor of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi and President of Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem that has been convened by European Council President Donald Tusk, who will meet with the Greek Prime Minister before its start.

Athens sent to Brussels its new proposals to creditors late last night during the meeting of their representatives who discussed them at the expert level. Sources from the Belgian capital indicate that the meeting lasted until late into the night.

Their task was to complete the required preparation so that the finance ministers make the final expert examination of the Greek plan at today's critical meeting of the Eurogroup and fix the agenda of the EU summit.

According to sources, the proposals sent by Athens involve a 23% VAT increase in the restaurant sector and the cancellation of the reduced rates of the same tax that are currently in force on the developed tourist Greek islands. In addition, the Greek government has proposed introducing a special tax on companies with revenues in excess of 500,000 euro and increasing the additional tax on incomes of over 30,000 euro. As for pensions, Athens has proposed eliminating early retirement after 1 January 2016.

The Greek Prime Minister presented the plan to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in phone calls on Sunday morning. Later, the council of ministers discussed it as well during a five-hour meeting at the government residence Maximou.

Late last night, with a message on the social network Twitter, head of cabinet of Jean-Claude Juncker Martin Selmayr defined Greece's new proposals as a "good basis" for talks at the EU summit that will start at 8:00 pm tonight.