Greece, on the brink – ElEspectador.com

While other self-imposed deadlines for the Government is due to secure agreement on its finances, disagreements between the two sides on the budgetary targets remain, said a person familiar with the matter. Greece must make this month four payments totaling nearly 1,600 million euros (US $ 1,780 million) to the International Monetary Fund and its bailout package backed by eurozone expires at the end of June.

Although the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, wrote in the French newspaper Le Monde that any intransigence has not been the fault of the administration, which only takes four months, a senior German lawmaker said it was up to Greece adhere to the agreed reforms before Tsipras took office. An international official, who asked not to be named, said that creditors were discussing a deal to present Greece as a way of ending the impasse.

“The lack of agreement so far should not be the alleged intransigence, inflexibility and incomprehensibility of the Greek position, “Tsipras wrote in the article published on Sunday. “It is because of the insistence of certain institutional actors in presenting absurd proposals which show a total indifference to the recent democratic election of the Greek people.”

With technical talks that do not achieve any breakthrough, Tsipras is seeking the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. The three leaders had a talk on Sunday to discuss what will happen next, which was described as “constructive” by a German government official.

Debt settlement

Greek stocks were little changed in May, with the benchmark index of the Athens Stock Exchange gained 0.3%, while local progress reports were followed by harsh warnings from European officials about risks hindering default.

The Economy Minister George Stathakis, said in an interview with Corriere della Sera of Italy expects a “technical solution” with Greece’s creditors “within days” and he reiterated that there will be no problem with the first payment to the IMF, scheduled for today.