Eurogroup Ends Meeting With No Agreement, Will Reconvene Sunday
Eurozone's finance ministers ended a marathon session with no agreement on Greece's latest reform proposal late Saturday night, ahead of Sunday's summit of Eurozone's leaders. The major point of resistance came from Finland, whose government appeared unwilling to support any new bailout funding for Greece, according to reports from the Finnish media. The Eurogroup of finance ministers failed to even to put together a common statement, and was considering, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa, drafting two options - one with the Finns and one without. On Sunday, the Finnish government would either yield to the eurozone's pressure and agree to a Greek bailout or a specific European Stability Mechanism emergency clause could be activated, which enables the ESM to grant financial assistance with only 85% of the votes. Finnish newspaper Kauppalehti also reported a third scenario, namely that the Finnish coalition government led by the right-wing True Finns party could be broken up. Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that Italy was ready to take a stance and demand that Germany hammer out an agreement with Greece. Earlier on Saturday, German media reported that Germany's finance ministry floated a document that outlined a temporary five-year Grexit from the euro, but not from the European Union. Eurozone leaders have demanded tougher reforms from Greece in exchange of what is now calculated at a potential new bailout of €74 billion ($82.55 billion).
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