(enikos.gr) — The eurozone has given Greece until Thursday to present new proposals to secure a deal with creditors, and has called a full EU summit for Sunday.
The moves came after an emergency eurozone leaders’ summit in Brussels.
The eurozone had asked Greece to submit fresh plans after its voters rejected a draft bailout in a referendum.
But Greece brought no written plans, suggesting instead a few changes to an earlier draft, which would respect “the mandate of the referendum”.
On Sunday a meeting of all 28 members of the European Union will be held.
European Council President Donald Tusk said that this was perhaps the “most critical moment in the history of the eurozone”.
“The final deadline ends this week,” he said.
Mr Tusk said a Greek bankruptcy and the collapse of the Greek banking system would affect the whole of Europe, and that anyone who thought otherwise was naive.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras said he wanted a “socially just and economically viable agreement”.
He said the eurozone understood that this was not just a Greek problem but a European problem.
Over dinner this evening, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras told his fellow leaders what he wants to achieve in the wake of his victory in the Greek referendum.
The suggestion is that he will agree to many but not all of the demands for reform which have been made by Greece’s creditors. Some of them he had previously rejected. But he wants much more in return – a third bailout from the eurozone, some sort of agreement on restructuring his country’s huge public debt, and more measures to encourage economic growth.
There is huge pressure on the Greek government because both the state and the banking system in Greece are on the verge of running out of money. But there is also pressure on other eurozone leaders. Mr Tusk said this was perhaps the most critical moment in the history of the single currency and of the EU itself.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the eurozone leaders had had a “serious, candid discussion” in Brussels that “reflected the seriousness of the situation at hand”.
She said the leaders “obviously respect the results of the referendum” but added: “As regards the euro, we don’t have the sovereignty of just one country to contend with, but of 18. Shared sovereignty, shared responsibility.”
Mrs Merkel said Greece needed a new debt programme that would last several years, not a short-term fix.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone but that Greece had to “tell us where they are heading” by the end of the week.
Italian PM Matteo Renzi said Mr Tsipras was acting in good faith to provide sensible proposals to stave off the debt crisis.
