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EUROZONE MINISTERS HAVE handed Greece an ultimatum to request an extension to its bailout programme after crunch talks collapsed, deepening a bitter stand-off that risks seeing Athens bid farewell to the euro.
Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Greece had the rest of the week to request an extension to the programme, which expires at the end of the month, challenging Athens to cave in on a dearly held position.
“Given the timelines we have… we can use this week but that is about it,” said Dijsselbloem, Dutch finance minister and a defender of austerity policies in the eurozone.
A Greek government source dismissed the demand to hold to its current bailout as “absurd” and in violation of a key promise made by new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to voters in elections he won last month.
“The insistence of certain people for the new Greek government to enforce the bailout is absurd and unacceptable,” the source said.
The radical leftist Tsipras government is trying to win a huge overhaul to the terms of its 240 billion euro ($270 billion) bailout which it says has damaged the Greek economy after years of imposed austerity.
But Greece’s 18 eurozone partners, led by the influential German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, insist that any change to austerity terms pass within the current programme.
“There’s only one reasonable path, that of a technical extension with flexibilty… to take the Greek people into account,” said French Finance Minister Michel Sapin.
But Tsipras swept into power last month on a promise to tear up the bailout agreement, all the while keeping the country in the 19-member eurozone.
To meet that pledge, Tsipras wants the eurozone to ditch the current deal and to agree to four to six months of short-term funding to buy the time to hammer out a new agreement, this time without austerity conditions.
Greece’s EU partners are infuriated that Athens may wriggle out of its commitments. They demand instead that Greece agree to extend the current programme by at least a few months and then talk about what happens afterwards. Sapin said:
If the Greek authorities want to take that path, a meeting will take place Friday to confirm their decision.
EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici also urged Greece to bite the bullet, promising that the eurozone would make every effort to be flexible.
“It is very important that the Greek government ask for an extension. It includes the legal basis on which we can work,” Moscovici said as the talks broke up after only a few hours.
Greece categorically rejects that option because it would come with the same austerity conditions which it says have destroyed the economy and thrust millions of Greeks into poverty.
In Athens, Tsipras’ coalition partner Panos Kammenos, who heads the Independent Greeks party, said the country would not request an extension.
“We will not request any extension, we have a public mandate to go to the end. The Greeks together say no, we will not be blackmailed,” Kammenos said on Twitter.
Greece was represented at Monday’s talks by new finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, a hard-charging professor and blogger, who before the talks said Greece was not “playing games”.
“We are determined to clash with mighty vested interests in order to reboot Greece and gain our partners’ trust,” Varoufakis wrote in The New York Times.
“We are also determined not to be treated as a debt colony that should suffer what it must,” he said.
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Yes my tutors insisted
Nice grounds to walk around on a good day. However, the Book of Kells, as important as it is, is a huge anticlimax for visitors who pay about 14 euro for a very limited view of it. I doubt it gets much repeat business.
@Kárl: lots of museums and tourists attractions have that problem, the Mona Lisa was disappointing AF but even if it was mind blowing I still wouldn’t have been bothered going back
@Kárl: I think the old library itself is actually much more impressive (though not worth €14)
@Karen Wellington: Got to see the Lady with an Ermine in Krakow a few years ago. It was in the Czartoryski museum, admission was for free or a just a few euros and the collection included the amazing Ottoman Turkish tents captured after the 1683 Battle of Vienna, everything looking like it was left behind by an army that retreated yesterday. None of this was behind glass, only a little rope barrier, an usher followed us around to make sure we didn’t don any of the Turkish armour.
We then went into the early renaissance paintings section, it all looked 2D and painted like an amateur, with weird fat baby Jesus. Then we turned a corner and there was the Lady with an Ermine. Looking real, 3D, glowing. It was especially startling after seeing it’s contemporaries.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2011/12/05/arts/05LEONARDO/05LEONARDO-jumbo.jpg
@Kárl: Repeat business? Who’d want to see it more than once?
@Michael Lynch: they turn the pages every few weeks so you could visit a few times and see different portions of the book.
@David Jordan: thanks David, I’ll keep it in mind if I’m ever in the area
@Kárl: Power tip get a son in there as a student and pay fees, accomodation and as a student he gets you in for free. See I fooled them…
“planning to open up its campus with a series of new pedestrian entrances.”
They would want to be careful about creating new rights of way – the old area is nice as is, been that way for hundreds of years – be shame to have it turned into a shortcut for cyclists etc.
Should be in the National Museum and viewing should be for free
@Gerard O’Donovan: the whole university? Wouldn’t fit my man.
Grand little spot. Great down by the pav on a nice day. Ah the good old days when I wasn’t half as much of a di-ck as I am now!
Walked out of the accommodation many a Saturday morning IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN
@Terrence Edwards: Fake News
Truly wonderful place to visit .
Should be in the National Museum and viewing should be for free.
It’s a university not a bloody park. Surely the staff and students should come first. Who cares if people who have no reason to go in there don’t go in there. They’re solving a non-existent problem.
Yes, went to college and got engaged there
Trinity College has the smallest cemetery, in Ireland, I’m still trying to find it. Then there’s the Zoological Museum (only €2 entrance fee), in the summer, an’ the Geology Dept.
@Claire Cahill: The cemetery is on the right side of the outside of the chapel in Front Square, towards the back. Walk down the ramp to the left of the Buttery and then up the few steps at the end of the ramp on the left. Look down and to your left and you’ll see the little cemetery. There’s not a lot to see, to be honest
@Greg Kane: I think two or three of the provosts from the 17th and 18th century are buried there
@Claire Cahill: I would love to find out if the rumour is true that there are/were tunnels under the college that anatomy students used to bring in bodies from the dame street area?
@Claire Cahill:
What about the Costello “church” in Carrick-0n-Shannon where only a husband & wife are buried?
Great buildings
Next week the journal will ask:
Have you ever been on a bus?
Have you ever eaten a banana?
Do you sweep the floor in your house?
Did you ever look at a seagull?
@Seamus ó Corcoráin: haha have you ever been on a bus ? Yes no or I’m not sure
The only reason non-students go into the Trinity grounds is to rob bicycles.
Yes. Went to college, got married, first child conceived there and graduated from there.
Only went there for a job interview, didn’t get the job…
Yes, went to college and got engaged there
Yes, went to college and got engaged there
Yes, went to college and got engaged there
Yes, some of my kids were fortunate enough to have gone to college there. I’ve been very lucky to have visited the college a number of times and seen the Book of Kells, something I have a great deal of interest in. I also couldn’t help myself taking the mickey out of some American tourists once, they were convinced I had some inside knowledge. Every time we turned a corner they seemed to be there, so in the end I… err… translated for them. I’m very sorry. I know, if there’s a hell I’m going.
Trinity has had a chequered 19c past when it excluded Catholics and perhaps should not have been supported post 1921.
@Moorooka Mick: hmmm I fail to see exactly what benefit there would have been “not supporting” the college post 1921 ….one that has a history with the likes of Oscar Wilde attending , that has been there hundreds of years and has a world class old library …,,over bigotry ??? And how we wouldn’t be just as guilty if we chose to be selective over what colleges to help grow the new independent country we chose to support ?? Your comment is quite baffling !
What’s the official Church stance on walking through college grounds? Maybe he likes to have a cup of tea in the evenings instead, Ted.
just for cans in the pav and a laugh at the toffes playing cricket!
Stayed in accomodation there a number of times over the summer months when up in the mock capitol while supporting Cork GAA. Cheap and cheerful, good breakfast and great location. I’m sure there is other good stuff in a university too but never got the chance to go to one:)
@AppleToes: Could you repeat that? I didn’t quite catch you the first time.
I went to Trinity and all I got was a lousy BSc.
The coffee is authentic in a couple of the canteens, but they never serve boxty with kippers. I think this may affect intellectual life there.
Stayed in accommodation there a number of times over the summer months in the 90s,00s when up in the mock capitol while supporting Cork hurlers/footballers. Cheap and cheerful, good breakfast and great location. I’m sure there is other good stuff in a university too but never got the chance to go to one:)
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