Athens, July 1 (IANS) The Greek government on Wednesday revealed its latest proposal for a debt deal with creditors to stave off a default and Grexit — exit from the eurozone — in coming weeks.
It dismissed media reports claiming that the government fully accepted lenders’ offer ahead of a crucial Eurogroup teleconference rescheduled for Wednesday evening, Xinhua news agency reported.
Athens’ draft deal, which was submitted as Greece was declared in arrears to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday midnight. It sought a new two-year loan to deal with financing problems through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and requested a further restructuring of Greek debt.
“The Greek government has tabled a new proposal with a series of amendments to the institutions in a bid to achieve a mutually beneficial agreement,” a statement issued to to the media said.
“Reports that Greece has accepted all the terms of the creditors’ proposal are unfounded,” it was stressed.
Athens released the letter Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addressed to European partners and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
“The Hellenic Republic is prepared to accept this staff level agreement (as published on the European Commission website on June 28, 2015) subject to the following amendments, additions or clarifications, as part of an extension of the expiring EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility) programme and the new ESM loan agreement for which a request was submitted on June 30, 2015,” Tsipras wrote.
“As you will note, our amendments are concrete and they fully respect the robustness and credibility of the design of the overall programme,” he added.
The Greek government requested that a 30 percent discount of VAT rates on islands be maintained, while agreeing to reduce the expenditure ceiling for military spending by 200 million euros ($222 million) in 2016 and 400 million euros in 2017.
The labour reform framework would also be legislated in autumn 2015.
Tsipras is expected to make a televised address to the nation later on Wednesday.