Greece begins tour to sell to Europe a new debt deal – Reuters

Greece begins tour to sell to Europe a new debt deal – Reuters

ATHENS (Reuters) – The government left Greece on Sunday began its campaign to convince skeptical European leaders to accept a new debt deal, as he begins to remove the austerity measures imposed within the covenant rescue force.

After the first week of turmoil, the new government has made Clearly not want to extend their current agreement with the “troika” of the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a support program whose final deadline is February 28.

Instead of bending to the terms offered, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is trying to convince its partners Europeans to get leeway while working on a new agreement to reduce intractable Greek public debt, which now represents more than 175 percent of its GDP.

The Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, is ready to begin a diplomatic offensive in Paris on Sunday, where he will meet with his French counterpart Michel Sapin and Minister Economy Emmanuel Macron before traveling to London on Monday to meet there with British Finance Minister George Osborne. On Tuesday visit Rome.

Looking at the meeting reiterated Sapin Greece could not expect their partners to accept a haircut. But he left the door open to other options that could include giving Athens more time to return.

“No, we will not ring (the debt), we can discuss, we can delay it, we can reduce your weight, but not cancel it,” he told Canal Plus television channel. He will meet with Varoufakis at 1700 local time (1600 GMT) before a joint statement to the media an hour and a half later.

The Tsipras own depart this week to Rome and Paris, the two big cities with more likely to appear sympathetic to their proposals, leading to both countries called for relaxing the rigid Eurozone austerity budget.

will also meet with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, but has yet to announce plans for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister of that country, Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has so far refused to consider a haircut of Greek debt.

Continued …