No means no, says SYRIZA govt to last-ditch EC offer

The rejection of the offer in prelude to the “no” being sent on July 5

Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government sources confirmed late on Monday the new proposal sent to them by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker on Sunday for a solution to the Greek economic crisis. Under the last-minute offer before the deadline for Greece’s debt repayment to the IMF expired on Tuesday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras would have had to send written acceptance for an emergency meeting of the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers to be held and agree to campaign in favor of the bailout in the planned July 5 referendum.

The government said that after carefully examining the offer they decided to continue with the referendum and decided to continue calling for a “no” on July 5.

The new offer incorporated a proposal from Greece that essentially dropped creditors demands for a 23% value-added tax rate on hotels, keeping them at 13%. The new proposal also allows for the continuation of the Social Solidarity Fund for Pensioners (EKAS) as well as four measures:

1. Acceptance of the proposals of Greece’s creditors
2. The Greek PM’s personal call for the people to vote “Yes” in the referendum
3. Acceptance of the institutions to change the text of their proposals
4. The calling of an emergency Eurogroup meeting

Acceptance of the offer would have meant that eurozone finance ministers could have said that a 2012 pledge to consider stretching out loan maturities, lowering interest rates and extending an interest payment moratorium on eurozone loans to Greece would be implemented in October.

 

JUNCK