Financial Times roving reporter Peter Spiegel has disclosed a letter, dated March 15, sent by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with eurozone officials saying a similar letter was sent to a select group of other top EU leaders as well.
The letter makes it clear that Greece would not be able to meet its debt obligations.
Other recipients include French President Francois Hollande, European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi and European Commission Preisdent Jean-Claude Juncker.
Merkel extended an invitation for Tsipras to visit her in Berlin on March 23, following the multi-partite meeting on the sidelines of the EU Council on Thursday.
Specifically, Tsipras cites his concerns about developments since the Feb. 20 Eurogroup agreement. The letter outlines a number of developments that “are either undermining the spirit of the agreements reached or making their fulfilment perilously difficult.” Problems, as per Tsipras, include:
* The ECB’s lifting of the waiver for minimum credit rating requirements for marketable instruments issued or guaranteed by Greece on February 4, while declaring the waiver would be restored when the agreement was reached at the level of Eurogroup. Since then, there have been a number of restructions.
* The discontinuation of disbursements under the loan agreements with the ESM-ESFS following the previous government’s failure to complete the scheduled reviews.
He attributes slow progress with the technical teams in Brussels and in Athens to the fact that these show little regard for the Feb. 20 Eurogroup agreement and are proceeding along the lines of the Memorandum of Understanding.
