Bruseels--Greece has been squeezing funds from the central and local governments to be able to meet its payments, but mayors are beginning to resist.
"Experience elsewhere in the world has shown that a country can suddenly slide into insolvency," Wolfgang Schaeuble, the powerful German finance minister, warned on Sunday.
Greek officials went on a frenetic diplomatic offensive last week, with the flamboyant Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis making stops in Paris, Brussels, Rome and Madrid to drum up support for his beleaguered nation.
Tsipras spoke three times by phone to Europe's most powerful leader, Germany's Angela Merkel, and he repeated calls to Jean-Claude Juncker, the wily head of the European Commission.
"After weeks of painful negotiation, if the other side is willing, it will become apparent that... the deal is very close and will be sealed in the coming period," Euclid Tsakalotos, one of Greece's main negotiators, said Sunday.
Sitting in for Greece at the Eurogroup will be Varoufakis, whose exuberant style and propensity to lecture has made fellow ministers bristle.
Varoufakis was thought to have been sidelined as negotiator after the last eurozone meeting ended sourly, and officials in Brussels are unanimous that a new team has calmed the waters.
Tsipras, whose Syriza party swept to power on an anti-austerity platform, has called for an "honourable compromise," and the government reportedly plans a number of concessions to win over its creditors.
According to reports, these include a new unified valued added tax (VAT) rate of 16 percent for several goods and services currently taxed at 13 percent.
The new VAT rate, along with a restriction on early retirement and an unpopular property tax, would enable the government to raise an additional five to six billion euros.
But since day one of these talks, bargaining has been complicated by conflicting messages from Athens on how much the government is prepared to compromise.
AFP
