Eurogroup Decides Not to Resume Greek Debt Talks Until After Referendum

Greek debt talks will be resumed only after the referendum.

THE HAGUE (Sputnik) — Eurozone finance ministers decided Wednesday to postpone debt talks with Greece until after the bailout referendum set for July 5, President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.

"The main decision was that given the political situation, the rejection of previous proposals, the referendum, which will take place on Sunday…we see no ground for further talks at this point," Dijsselbloem said in a statement following the latest Eurogroup teleconference.

"There will be no further talks in the coming days, nor Eurogroup, nor talks between the Greek authorities and institutions on proposals or financial arrangements," Dijsselbloem said.

"We will simply wait now for the outcome of the referendum on Sunday," he added.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras vowed that a ‘no’ vote in the upcoming plebiscite, which his administration advocates, would not constitute an imminent split from the European monetary union. European officials are calling for the Greek public to vote ‘yes’ in acceptance of their cash-for-reforms proposal.

Tsipras was reported to have sent a last-minute letter to the three international creditors late Tuesday, accepting a qualified offer. Under his conditions, he would accept the creditors’ offer if the Greek islands, many of them remote, were granted a 30-percent discount, while pension reforms would be implemented at a slower pace.

The Greek leader had sent the compromise letter mere hours after missing the deadline to pay back its $1.7-billion loan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The implications of the skipped deadline appear to result in Athens’ removal from the Eurozone and a default on the latest EU-ECB-IMF bailout program.