Brussels--The European Central Bank was set to hold an emergency meeting Sunday amid mounting fears Greece's banks will be unable to open next week, as the debt-stricken country hurtled closer towards a possible exit from the eurozone.
Greece's crisis deepened Saturday after its European partners responded to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's call for a referendum on bailout proposals by refusing to extend a critical financial lifeline after it ends on Tuesday.
The ECB is expected to play a critical role in ensuring Greek banks have the cash to open, after long queues formed at cash machines across the country at the weekend on fears capital controls would be introduced in the face of Athens' looming default on a huge IMF repayment.
Parliamentarians late Saturday voted in favour of the referendum -- a shock announcement by radical leader Tsipras after his government rejected the latest debt deal -- saying it involved further austerity measures that would cause "humiliation" to the Greek people.
The referendum on July 5 will ask Greeks to say "yes" or "no" to the measures submitted by creditors to Athens on Friday at one of the final rounds of negotiations.
In a speech before parliament's vote, Tsipras said he was confident "the Greek people will say an emphatic no to the ultimatum" by the country's EU-IMF creditors, but "a big yes to European solidarity".
Angry eurozone finance ministers accused Greece of "unilaterally" breaking off talks and said they would not extend the bailout past June 30, the same day a 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) payment to the International Monetary Fund falls due.
"It was not us who walked away from the talks, it was the Greek government that walked away," a grim-faced Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said after tense negotiations in Brussels.
AFP
