Bloomberg — Greece and its creditors ended talks on Sunday without reaching an agreement on terms attached to a bailout, even as Europe’s most-indebted state stands at the forefront of handling the continent’s biggest-ever wave of irregular migration.
Work will continue over the Easter break and bailout monitors will return to Athens on April 2 with a view to concluding negotiations as soon as possible, a European Commission spokeswoman said in an e-mail. The latest round of talks produced some progress on reforms to income tax and pensions, she said.
The failure to reach a deal adds to pressure on Greece as its economy struggles under capital controls imposed last year and as crisis-management infrastructure buckles following the arrival of more than a million refugees in 15 months. The country, which first asked for a bailout in 2010, needs to secure agreements in a variety of areas, including tax, bad bank loans and fiscal measures.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government has blamed the International Monetary Fund for the stalemate, saying that Greece’s positions have been converging with those of European creditors. A finance-ministry official said in an e-mail to reporters last week that the IMF’s insistence on reducing the income-tax threshold was shocking and that the fund wasn’t negotiating with the appropriate degree of seriousness.
Migrant Crisis
The migrant crisis has added to the challenges facing Greece, with almost 50,000 refugees stranded in the country in temporary facilities, according to government data. A deal struck last week by the European Union should result in all irregular migrants crossing to Greek islands as of March 20 being returned to Turkey. Still, Greece’s strained asylum-applications system will continue processing requests for international protection on a case-by-case basis.
“The implementation of the agreement will require huge operational efforts from all involved, and most of all from Greece,” the EC said in a March 19 statement on its website. EU member states will provide support, including border guards, asylum experts and interpreters, it said.
