Brussels--Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his country's creditors failed to reach a bailout deal at emergency talks Thursday, raising fresh fears that Athens will default on an IMF loan next week.
The differences remain so great despite two days of marathon negotiations that the EU-IMF lenders and Greece will present rival reform proposals to eurozone finance ministers later in Brussels, sources told AFP.
"The Greeks have rather made steps backward. Positions are even further apart rather than narrowing," Germany's influential Wolfgang Schaeuble said ahead of a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was "tired to death" after talks with leftist leader Tsipras and the heads of the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund late Wednesday and early Thursday.
The aim was to finalise a deal in time to have it approved by EU leaders meeting at a summit in Brussels on Thursday night, ahead of a June 30 payment deadline for a 1.5-billion-euro ($1.7 billion) IMF loan repayment.
But they produced no breakthrough in the five-month standoff between the anti-austerity Greek government and the creditors, who have refused to release 7.2 billion euros in bailout funds unless Greece promises new reforms.
"There will be two texts" at the Eurogroup meeting of eurozone finance ministers, a Greek government source said. "It's a sign of the big distance between Greece and its creditors."
AFP
