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Or will she Rue the Day (as per French FM Michel Sapin’s dire warning to Her Frumpy Nibs)?
(‘Syriza seems to have blinked’ is here; it was getting a bit long and unwieldy.)
“A summit of all EU leaders scheduled for Sunday has been cancelled with eurozone leaders only meeting to “conclude talks on Greece.” On Saturday, a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers was adjourned without reaching any conclusion.
Early on Sunday, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, tweeted that the eurozone leaders’ meeting will start at 14:00 GMT.
We had an in-depth discussion of Greek proposals, the issue of credibility and trust was discussed, and also of course financial issues involved. But we have not concluded our discussions, so we will continue at 11:00am,” the president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem told journalists late Saturday.
“It is still very difficult, but work is still in progress,” the Dutch finance minister added, refusing to share any details of the negotiations.
It’s hard to say who or what exactly was behind the decision to cancel the EU summit, especially in light of the reports that if no decision was reached among the Eurozone ministers, The 28 Titanns would have decided on the ‘terms’ of a Grexit.
I got booted out of the Telegraph this morning, but before that, I’d read a snippet there about Putin trying to arrange a complimentary gas delivery to Greece; that goes along with my daydream of flotillas arriving with food, medicine, crates of even non-Euro currencies (some stores are taking others), and so forth.
There is also some indication that Herr Schauble’s Further Punishment or 5-year Grexit plan may indeed have been soooo toxic that it’s caused more support for Athens, although what level of (ahem) benevolence they’d support isn’t clear.
Oddly enough, the Guardian hasn’t posted anything since their recap of yesterday’s meeting for three hours, although the Sunday meeting was to have begun at 11:00 Brussell’s time (seven hours ahead of MDT, iirc).
Back to RT:
“Several EU officials called upon Germany, which holds the majority of Greece’s debt, not to allow it to exit the eurozone.
“Now common sense must prevail and an agreement must be reached. Italy does not want Greece to exit the euro and to Germany I say: enough is enough,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was quoted as saying by Rome-based daily Il Messaggero.
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that if Berlin “pushes for a Grexit, it will provoke a profound conflict with France. That would be a catastrophe for Europe.”
“It would be fatal for Germany’s reputation in the EU and the world if Berlin does not seize the chance that there now is with the Greek reform offers,” he said.
A senior member of the Greek ruling Syriza party, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, said that Berlin is humiliating Greece with new demands for a bailout deal and trying to overthrow its government.
“What is at play here is an attempt to humiliate Greece and Greeks, or to overthrow the Tsipras government,” he told Greek Mega TV.”
So yes, Frau Merkel; the world is watching you and your minions having political tantrums, and those of conscience aren’t liking your cruel antics at all.
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‘BRICS Establishes A Development Bank; Patrick Bond, Co-Author of BRICS: An Anti-Capitalism Critique, finds BRICS to be largely neoliberal and unequal, evident by the appointees to the bank board’ – July 12, 2015 at TRNN
The title says a lot, but he says Greece can’t get help, especially because the bank’s still so undercapitalized. Bond’s conclusion are quite contra Mike Whitney’s ‘‘Putin Leads BRICS Uprising’ thesis, at least for the time being, although he’s speaking more of breaking dollar and Empire hegemony.
Just to be clear, the working Eurogroup document includes these items that various journalists are calling pummeling with baseball bats, financial waterboarding, analogous to Rome sowing Carthage with salt…
The draft proposal, which comes from this morning’s eurozone finance ministers, forces Greece to take these seven steps straight away:
- Streamlining VAT
- Broadening the tax base
- Sustainability of pension system
- Adopt a code of civil procedure
- Safeguarding of legal independence for Greece ELSTAT — the statistic office
- Full implementation of automatic spending cuts
- Meet bank recovery and resolution directive
And also get the ball moving on another five points:
- Privatize electricity transmission grid
- Take decisive action on non-performing loans
- Ensure independence of privatization body TAIPED
- De-Politicize the Greek administration
- Return of officials from its creditors to Athens
There have been strong hard-Leftist Oxi! demonstrations against further austerity and waterboarding in Athens, with media loving to predict riots, etc. But there is talk of a ‘Syriza cabinet reshuffle’ soon, a new coalition or elections. Mario Drahgi…is looking for a sign a deal is possible…to author some unknown amount of ELA to the banks. And they’re calling him supportive; go figure.
(I have a lot on my plate in RL today, so I’ll fill in as I can on breaks, and/or see anything that seems like News. Please feel free to bring what you find, too.)
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