Greece races to restart talks with skeptical creditors

Published 10:10 am Tuesday, July 7, 2015

BRUSSELS — With his country struggling to stave off financial collapse, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will try to convince European creditors to agree on a new bailout program when they meet Tuesday for an emergency eurozone summit.

Tsipras is set to offer a new plan of economic measures to creditors that he hopes will restart negotiations on getting new loans for his country. The situation is urgent — without a deal, Greece’s banks could go bust within days, the first step in the country’s potential exit from the euro currency union.

Greece’s financial distress became more acute late Monday when the European Central Bank refused to increase assistance for Greek banks, which are not due to reopen until Thursday.

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A hastily arranged meeting of eurozone finance ministers, which will be Euclid Tsakalotos’ first as Greek finance minister, is slated for the afternoon in Brussels. A full summit of leaders will then follow.

European officials were cautious about the prospects for progress.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Union’s executive Commission, indicated a comprehensive deal for Greece was unlikely to be reached Tuesday.

“Were we to come up with a solution today, it would be an overly simplistic solution,” he told European lawmakers ahead of the meetings. “What we’re going to do today is talk to each other, understand each other, show tolerance to each other and restore order to the situation.”