European Commission rejects Greece's new bailout reform plan

The European Commission (EC) has dismissed Greece’s new bailout reform plan as the Greek prime minister is expected to hold a meeting with the German chancellor and the French president over the Greek debt issue.

The EC spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, said Wednesday that Greece’s latest bailout reform plan “do not reflect the state of discussions” between EC President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece.

Shinas also said the “ball is clearly in the court of the Greek government” if Greece’s administration wants to settle the five-month disagreement with its creditors.

The announcement came only a day after the debt-ridden country submitted an alternative new proposal to its troika of international creditors, namely the European Union (EU), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EC.

The administration of Tsipras, whose leftist Syriza party won the January 25 elections, has tried to reach a deal on the repayment of some USD 330 billion it has received in bailout since 2009. Over the past months, the cash-strapped country has been engaged in talks with its lenders aimed at unlocking the last €7.2 billion (USD 7.8 billion) loan remaining from bailout funds promised to the country.

Fate of talks

Time is running out for Athens, whose bailout program expires by the end of June and has a deadline of three weeks to conclude a final deal with its international creditors. 

Tsipras has already arrived in Brussels, and he is expected to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of a summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states (EU-CELAC) in the latest effort to break the bailout negotiation deadlock.

German and French officials have refused to confirm that such a meeting will take place. A European diplomatic source was quoted as saying, “Nothing has been confirmed for the moment on a Merkel-Hollande-Tsipras trilateral.”

Juncker, as a key negotiator in the Grteek talks, has called a new meeting with Tsipras a “waste of time,” preferring to “meet with the Latin Americans.”

On June 7, the EC president criticized Tsipras for failing to submit a second alternative proposal, days after the Greek premier slammed Juncker’s “absurd proposal.”

Greece has proposed a budget surplus of 0.8 percent for 2015 and 1.5 percent for next year. However, according to reports, the creditors call for a budget surplus of one percent for this year and two percent for 2016.

On June 5, Greece missed a deadline for one of its debt payments worth 300 million euros (USD 340 million). Instead, Athens combined four of its upcoming payments, vowing to make the payment by June 30.

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