Talks on a second Greek bailout may drag into July, casting doubt on a payment due early next month, as euro-area finance chiefs struggle to break a deadlock over how to enroll private investors in the rescue.
The finance ministers failed to reconcile a German-led push for bondholders to shoulder part of the cost of a new Greek aid package with European Central Bank warnings that such a move might constitute a default. With consensus elusive before the target date of a June 23-24 leaders’ summit, finance ministers will convene again on June 19 in Luxembourg, a day earlier than planned.
“We have to proceed very cautiously,” Luxembourg Finance Minister Luc Frieden told reporters after an emergency meeting in Brussels today, adding that “very clearly we have to go into that direction” of a delay to next month on a new aid package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. “Several options -- from the IMF, as well as from the European Central Bank and from the European Commission -- still have to be studied.”
Bloomberg
