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 The announcement by leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras came hours
after leaders of Germany, France and the lending institutions held
emergency talks on the Greek debt crisis in Berlin in a sign of
top-level concern about the impasse.
It appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt a take-it-or-leave-it offer
by the creditors and to show Greek voters that Athens, too, is
putting forward proposals.
"We have submitted a realistic plan for Greece to exit the crisis. A
realistic plan, whose acceptance by the institutions, our lenders
and our partners in Europe will mark the end of the scenario of
divisions in Europe," Tsipras told reporters.
"It is now clear that the decision on whether they want to adjust to
realism ... the decision rests with the political leadership of
Europe."
It was not immediately known whether the document, which some EU
officials said they had not yet seen, gave any ground on the main
outstanding issues of pension and labor market reform, fiscal
targets and the size of the civil service that have dogged four
months of tough negotiations.
A European Commission spokeswoman said many documents were being
exchanged among negotiators, which was "already a good sign". Talks
with Greece were continuing and "we are not there yet", she said.
Sources close to the negotiations said there were no major
concessions on the deal-breaking issues in the Greek paper.
The European Union's economics chief said earlier Athens had put
forward first proposals for pension reform as the talks reach a
crunch point this week with Greek funds drying up.
"REAL INTENSITY"
The leaders who met in Berlin agreed to work with "real intensity"
to try to wrap up the negotiations in the coming days and to keep in
touch with each other and with Tsipras.
Their meeting showed that national and international leaders have
now taken the battle to keep Greece in the euro zone into their own
hands after months of insisting it was a matter for technical
negotiations among experts.
Failure to reach agreement this month could trigger a Greek default
and lead to the imposition of capital controls and a potential exit
from the euro zone, dealing a blow to Europe's supposedly
irreversible single currency.
A Greek government official said Athens would make a 300 million
euro ($329.58 million) repayment to the IMF on Friday as due if
there was an agreement with the creditors, hinting it might
otherwise withhold the money without saying so explicitly.
"If we judge that a deal has been sealed, then we will make the June
5 payment normally," the official said, adding that the money would
be transferred if there was a preliminary agreement that was not yet
approved by Eurogroup finance ministers.
EU Economy Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the talks were making
progress at last, citing what he said were new Greek proposals on
pensions, a core issue for the creditors, who are demanding some
benefit cuts and a crackdown on early retirement to make the complex
system financially sustainable.
Greek officials played down talk of new pension proposals.
"Greece has been flexible for a long time on pension reform, willing
to scrap incentives for early retirement and proceed with merging
pension funds. This is what is still on the table," a Greek
government official said.
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Greece's central bank governor, Yannis Stournaras, who served as
finance minister in a previous conservative-led government, urged
the government to respect the "sacrifices" its people had made to
stay in the euro, citing a 35 percent drop in living standards
during the crisis that began in 2009.
Moscovici deflected Greek demands for official debt relief, saying
the issue of making Greek debt sustainable in the longer term would
only be addressed once Athens had accepted a cash-for-reform deal to
release some 7.2 billion euros in frozen aid.
That program expires at the end of June unless there is an
agreement.
The ECB's top banking supervisor, Daniele Nouy, stressed on Tuesday
that Greece's banks remain solvent despite deposit outflows and the
government's cash squeeze - a key condition for the central bank
continuing to provide emergency liquidity.
DEFIANCE
In public, Greek ministers continued to be defiant. Deputy Prime
Minister Yannis Dragasakis said on his Twitter account that Greece's
economy and society could not bear more austerity, and any deal must
include a clear roadmap to debt sustainability.
"As a government we do not accept ultimatums, nor do we surrender to
blackmail," he said, stressing that the leftist government would
stick to its popular mandate.
Labor Minister Panos Skourletis said on Skai TV that Greece could
not make any more concessions for a deal and it was up to the
creditors to make concessions now.
A French presidency official hinted after Monday's talks that there
were still differences among the lenders on the terms for a deal,
after Greek officials said the IMF was toughest in demanding pension
cuts and opposing any restoration of collective wage bargaining.
"(The leaders) agreed to work intensively to achieve a joint
position of the institutions and to remain in close contact with
Alexis Tsipras," the French official said, suggesting there were
still gaps to be bridged among the creditors.
Greece has received two EU/IMF bailouts totaling 240 billion euros
since 2010, when it lost access to capital markets after admitting
it had issued erroneous figures for years concealing the true scale
of its budget deficit.
(Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Anna Willard)
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