Alan Crawford writes:\u00a0 German Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek accommodation in talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to calm the increasingly combative rhetoric between the nations and regain control over efforts to keep Greece in the euro.<\/p>\n
Merkel, as leader of the biggest contributor to Greece\u2019s 240 billion-euro ($255 billion) bailout, is willing to go a long way to find a compromise.<\/p>\n
After weeks of sparring between Greece and Germany, Merkel is pursuing the talks now to try and get the discussion back on track. Any suggestion that she will deliver an ultimatum to Tsipras is complete nonsense and propagated by those who want to inflame the standoff, the official said.Merkel sees the meetings with Tsipras as more of a chance to get to know him, and doesn\u2019t plan to directly negotiate the details of Greece\u2019s fate, which she sees as a matter between Athens and its creditors, the official said. Her room for leeway on Greece is in any case limited by resistance from within her own parliamentary group, according to the official.<\/p>\n
Merkel is convinced that now is the \u201cright time to hold extensive talks,\u201d Steffen Seibert, her chief spokesman, said,\u00a0 \u201cThe talks will be about the situation between Greece and the other members of the euro area and how a way forward can be achieved.\u201d
\nAcrimonious Exchanges<\/p>\n
Tsipras is pinning his hopes to reach a breakthrough on a meeting he\u2019s requested with Merkel, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker on the sidelines of a European Union summit that starts Thursday. Merkel has also invited Tsipras to Berlin March 23 for one-on-one talks.<\/p>\n
Euro-region finance ministers are urging Greece to draw up a plan to fix the economy in exchange for emergency loans to keep the country afloat. As Tsipras challenges his creditors to blink first, his government\u2019s money is running out, raising the prospect of a cash crunch as early as this month. The country faces more than 2 billion euros in debt payments Friday, and government salaries and pensions must be paid at the end of March.<\/p>\n
The ECB raised the maximum amount of emergency liquidity available to Greek lenders by 400 million euros on Wednesday, less than the about 900 million euros the nation\u2019s central bank had requested, people familiar with the decision said.<\/p>\n
Greek banks were cut off from regular ECB funding operations in February, forcing them onto Emergency Liquidity Assistance from the Greek central bank. The Frankfurt-based ECB has the power to curb ELA and is reviewing it weekly amid concern that banks will use it to finance the Greek government and so violate European Union law.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have asked us to put an end to austerity and bailout agreements, to begin the process of reclaiming the dignity of the nation,\u201d Tsipras said. \u201cWe respond today, tomorrow and on Friday in parliament by building a wall of sovereignty and dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alan Crawford writes:\u00a0 German Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek accommodation in talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to calm the increasingly combative rhetoric between the nations and regain control over efforts to keep Greece in the euro. Merkel, as … Continue reading ![\"Merkel](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Merkel-and-Tsipras.jpg\")
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