2015年CRI 欧元区财长拒绝希腊延长一个月财政救助请求

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Eurogroup finance ministers shut out their Greek counterpart from a meeting in Brussels on Saturday and issued a statement without him that accused Athens of breaking off negotiations¹ with the EU unilaterally.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had earlier held out hopes of a last-ditch deal with creditors² to prevent Greece from defaulting on its 1.6 billion euro loan repayment³ to the International Monetary⁴ Fund (IMF) that is due on June 30.

But then negotiators were blindsided by Greece's surprise move to call on a public referendum on June 5, after the Tuesday deadline to pay up.

The 11th-hour announcement of a referendum has derailed five months of intense talks.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, says now they were discussing a "Plan B" – on how to limit the damage of a default and deal with possible aftershocks.

"Well I've always said, and will say that the door is open. It was not the institutions that walked away from the talks last night, it was the representatives of the Greek government that walked away from those talks. It was not us who said the talks have come to an end in a negative way, it was the Greek government who have said that what is on the table now deserves a 'no'. That's all I can say. The process has not ended. It will never end probably. We will continue to work with Greece".

The Greek parliament is due to vote later on whether to ratify⁵ the referendum that allows Greek voters to decide on the terms of a new deal.

Ordinary Greeks, however, are now lining⁶ up outside banks, to withdraw their savings⁷ that could lead to a possible bank run.

Earlier, The European Central Bank (ECB) had given emergency liquidity⁸ funding to shore up the Greek banking⁹ system, but is now reluctant to throw another life-line.

But Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis blamed international lenders for making an 'inadequate¹⁰ proposal' that his government just couldn't accept.

"The refusal of the Eurogroup today to endorse¹¹ our request for an extension of this agreement for a few days, a couple of weeks, so as to allow the Greek people to deliver their verdict on the institutions' proposal, especially given that there is a very high probability that Greeks will go against our recommendation and vote in favor of the institutions' proposal... That refusal will certainly damage the credibility of the Eurogroup as a democratic union of partner member states and I'm very much afraid that that damage will be permanent."

Greek's brinkmanship has now pushed Europe's single currency into a stage of rupture¹² for the first time in its 16-year life. If Greece exits the Euro, the financial fallout could send shockwaves across the global economy.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara.