Goodbye Kiss Today?

Courtesy of Mish.

Parties on both sides still talk as if a deal over Greece is possible, but how realistic is that? And yesterday, the ECB voted to continue ELA, but did so with an amount less than Greece requested.

Last Minute Phone Talks

This morning, Reuters reported EU’s Juncker, Greek PM Tspiras Hold Telephone Talks.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday and will speak again on Sunday to seek a solution to Athens’ debt crisis, an EU official said on condition of anonymity.

Over the weekend, senior officials have remained in close contact ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and euro zone leaders scheduled for Monday, the official said.

Tomorrow, eurozone officials hold an emergency metting to discuss Greece. However, France and Germany Insist Greece Needs to Table Offer Today.

France and Germany have told Greece it must have an agreement on economic reform measures with the trio of bailout monitors finalised and delivered before a crucial leaders’ summit between Athens and its creditors on Monday.

With the Greek cabinet meeting on Sunday to consider compromise proposals, François Hollande and Angela Merkel both telephoned Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, to remind him that he needed a “staff level” agreement with the European Commission, IMF and ECB ahead of the summit.

If a deal is reached, the two leaders said the summit could start talking about the Greek debt and a third bailout. France is open to discussing debt relief and restructuring, Mr Hollande told Mr Tsipras, whose radical leftwing government won office in January setting Greece on a collision course with its creditors.

The Greek cabinet was summoned to a meeting at Mr Tsipras’ Maximos Mansion residence on Sunday morning for a last-ditch meeting to hash out the government’s strategy.

Ministers are expected to discuss how Mr Tsipras can bridge his two seemingly intractable electoral mandates: to end austerity and block further cuts in spending while also satisfying creditors’ demands for reform to keep Greece in the eurozone.

Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister, writing in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, has said German chancellor Angela Merkel faces “a stark choice” ahead of the crucial summit of European leaders in Brussels on Monday.

Ms Merkel could enter into “an honourable agreement with