Monthly Archives: February 2015

Greece is counting on the European Central Bank to maintain a financial lifeline while the week-old government in Athens negotiates new terms on its international bailout package, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said.

While the country is “desperate” for funds, it will forgo further disbursements of emergency aid until negotiating a “new social contract” with its creditors, he said. He set an end-May deadline for reaching a deal on a revamped rescue with the euro area and the International Monetary Fund.

“For that period, we’re not going to ask for any more loans,” Varoufakis told reporters today in Paris after meeting French Finance Minister Michel Sapin. “During this period, it is perfectly possible in conjunction with the ECB to establish the liquidity provisions that are necessary.”

The danger for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who won power on Jan. 25 following pledges to undo more than four years of austerity tied to emergency aid, is that both the country’s banks and the government could be left without funding as soon as next month. Greece has until end-February to qualify for an aid payment of as much as 7 billion euros ($7.9 billion) and hasn’t indicated any willingness to seek an extension.

Letting the review lapse under Greece’s 240 billion-euro aid program could result in its banks effectively being excluded from ECB liquidity operations while the government is still shut out of international bond markets.

At the moment, Greece has a special dispensation from the ECB because the country is considered to be complying with the bailout pact. That means its debt can be used in central-bank refinancing operations even though it is rated junk.

Varoufakis, whose Paris visit was the first of a series of trips to European cities to press his case, said he intends travel to Frankfurt to seek support for Greek banks from the ECB while a political accord on an aid overhaul is negotiated with the euro area and the IMF. He’s scheduled to see British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in London tomorrow.

A revamped rescue for Greece, where unemployment is more than 25 percent, would address a “humanitarian crisis,” the need for investment and the country’s debt mountain of about 180 percent of gross domestic product, he said.

“What this government is all about is ending the addiction” to funds that are tied to demands for austerity, Varoufakis said. The government is willing to “go cold turkey for a while, while we’re deliberating,” he said.

At the same briefing, Sapin said France would be willing to offer Greece debt relief in the form of longer repayment periods and lower interest rates while rejecting a writedown that Tsipras has demanded. That position mirrors the euro area’s stance.

“Anything that can alleviate the Greek debt burden will be welcome … but of course there is no question of cancelling the Greek debt,» Sapin said.

He added that this would simply mean that instead of the Greek taxpayer it would be for the European or French taxpayer to foot the bill.

Sapin said he wants to facilitate a new deal for Greece with its official creditors after hearing the country’s plans for economic revival.

Sapin said that it’s “legitimate” for Greeks to be concerned about their debt burden and the country needs investment to generate economic growth after meeting the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, in Paris on Sunday.

Greece’s creditors should offer the country a “new contract,” Sapin said.

Varoufakis said that Greece wants its debt repayments to be tied to economic growth and appealed to the European Central Bank to keep funding the country’s lenders until an agreement is reached. Varoufakis said he’ll arrange a meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble within the next 24 hours and also plans to visit Frankfurt.

Varoufakis appointed Lazard Ltd. as adviser on issues related to public debt and fiscal management on Saturday.

“There is a range of possible solutions: extending the maturities, lowering interests rates, and the much more radical solution, the haircut,” Matthieu Pigasse, the head of Lazard’s Paris office who has advisedGreece in the past, said in a Jan. 30 interview on BFM Business television. “If we could cut the debt by 50 percent” he said, “it would allow Greece to return to a reasonable debt to GDP ratio.”

He said Greece’s debt to public creditors was about 200 billion euros.

source: ekathimerini.com

As representatives of the new Greek government begin a round of visits to eurozone countries, President Barack Obama has suggested that Greece will not be able to recover from its economic crisis unless there is a let up in austerity policies.

“You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression,” when CNN’s Fareed Zakaria asked him about the case of Greece. “At some point, there has to be a growth strategy in order to pay off their debts and eliminate some of their deficits.

“There is no doubt that the economy of Greece was in dire need of reform,” he said in the interview broadcast on Sunday. “Tax collection was famously terrible. In order for Greece to compete in the world markets, they had to initiate a series of changes.”

However, the US president underlined that it is very difficult to carry out reforms when a country’s economy has contracted dramatically. Greece saw almost a quarter of its GDP disappear between 2008 and 2014.

“It’s very hard to initiate those changes if people’s standards of living are dropping by 25 percent,” he said. “Over time, the political system and society cannot sustain it.”

Obama also made reference to the compromise that would be needed by the SYRIZA-led coalition and the eurozone to reach a deal that would keep Greece in the single currency.

“My hope is that Greece will remain in the eurozone,” he told CNN. “I think that will require compromise on all sides. When the financial crisis in Greece flared up a few years ago, we were very active in trying to arrive at some sort of accommodation. I think there’s recognition on the part of Germany and others that it would be better for Greece to stay in the eurozone than be outside of it and the markets will obviously be skittish about this.”

Obama suggested that the eurozone needed to do more to stimulate growth and repeated that country’s that have been through deep recessions, such as Greece, should be assisted.

“More broadly I’m concerned about growth in Europe. Fiscal prudence is important, structural reforms are necessary in many of these countries but what we’ve learnt in the US experience… is that the best way to reduce deficits and restore fiscal soundness is to grow,” he said.

“When you have an economy that is in freefall there has to be a growth strategy and not simply an effort to squeeze more and more out of a population that is hurting worse and worse”.

source: ekathimerini.com

Έκτακτο σχέδιο στήριξης της Ελλάδας φέρεται -σύμφωνα με δημοσιεύματα του γερμανικού Τύπου- να καταρτίζει η Κομισιόν. Κατά τις πληροφορίες, η στήριξη θα δοθεί έως το καλοκαίρι και θα έχει ως αντάλλαγμα δομικές μεταρρυθμίσεις. Παράλληλα, δημοσιεύματα θέλουν τον επικεφαλής της Κομισιόν Ζαν-Κλοντ Γιούνκερ να επιθυμεί την κατάργηση της τρόικας, κάτι με το οποίο φέρεται μάλλον να συμφωνεί και το Βερολίνο.

«Ο Γιούνκερ θέλει να καταργήσει την τρόικα» είναι τίτλος δημοσιεύματος στην ηλεκτρονική σελίδα της γερμανικής οικονομικής εφημερίδας «Handelsblatt», με τον υπέρτιτλο «Ελλάδα-Συμβιβασμός».

«Πρώτα οι Έλληνες προκάλεσαν εντός της εβδομάδας πολλή φασαρία. Το Σαββατοκύριακο τα μηνύματα από την Αθήνα έγιναν πιο συμφιλιωτικά. Και τώρα ο πρόεδρος της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής Γιούνκερ είναι έτοιμος για έναν συμβιβασμό. Και το Βερολίνο μάλλον ακολουθεί» αναφέρει το δημοσίευμα.

Σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες της εφημερίδας, ο κ. Γιούνκερ σχεδιάζει να καταργήσει την τρόικα της Ελλάδας και «αυτό το τρίο να μην ξαναπάει στην Αθήνα».

«Πρέπει τώρα να βρούμε γρήγορα μια εναλλακτική για αυτό», επισημαίνει η εφημερίδα ότι ειπώθηκε σε κύκλους της Κομισιόν. «Με αυτό ο Γιούνκερ συμφωνεί με ένα κεντρικό αίτημα του νέου έλληνα πρωθυπουργού», τονίζει ο συντάκτης και προσθέτει ότι και η γερμανική κυβέρνηση είναι κατ’ αρχήν πρόθυμη να συμφωνήσει σε μια μεταρρύθμιση της τρόικας.

«Θα μπορούσαμε να παραιτηθούμε από τις επισκέψεις ελέγχου στην Αθήνα, οι οποίες εκλαμβάνονται από τους Έλληνες, ως εξευτελιστικές και αντ’ αυτών να τεθούν στην Ελλάδα πλέον μόνο πιο γενικοί οικονομικοπολιτικοί στόχοι» αναφέρει η εφημερίδα πως είναι η άποψη σε κύκλους της γερμανικής κυβέρνησης.

Μια τέτοια παραχώρηση είναι δυνατή όμως μόνο εφόσον η νέα ελληνική κυβέρνηση αποδεχτεί την έως τώρα συμφωνηθείσα πορεία μεταρρυθμίσεων και λιτότητας, τονίζεται.

Ο κ. Γιούνκερ, σύμφωνα με την Handelsblatt, θέλει να στηρίξει τον κ. Τσίπρα και σε ένα άλλο σημείο: Ο επικεφαλής της Κομισιόν δείχνει κατανόηση στο ότι ο νέος έλληνας πρωθυπουργός θέλει να αυξήσει τον κατώτατο μισθό, επισημαίνει ο συντάκτης και διευκρινίζει ότι ο κ. Γιούνκερ παραμένει κατηγορηματικά αντίθετος στο ενδεχόμενο κουρέματος του ελληνικού χρέους.

Πηγή:in.gr

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras began the hunt for allies against German demands for austerity as his week-old government appealed to the European Central Bank not to shut off the money tap.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said his country won’t take any more aid under its existing bailout agreement and wants a new deal with its official creditors by the end of May. While Greece tries to wring concessions on its debt and spending plans, it needs the ECB’s help to keep its banks afloat, Varoufakis said at a briefing in Paris late Sunday.

“We’re not going to ask for any more loans,” Varoufakis said after meeting his French counterpart, Michel Sapin. “During this period, it is perfectly possible in conjunction with the ECB to establish the liquidity provisions that are necessary.”

Tsipras, who issued a statement Saturday promising to stick by Greece’s financial obligations, is seeking to repair damage after a rocky first week. Bond yields spiraled and banks stocks plummeted after German Chancellor Angela Merkel stonewalled his plans to ramp up spending and write down debt. The Greek leader visits Cyprus on Monday before trips to Rome, Paris and Brussels.

He’s not scheduled to see Merkel, the biggest contributor to Greece’s financial rescue, until a European Union summit on Feb. 12.

Merkel wants to avoid getting drawn into a direct confrontation with Tsipras and is unlikely to agree to a face-to-face meeting with him at next week’s gathering of leaders, according to a German government official who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

Merkel’s Aim

The chancellor’s goal is to show Tsipras that he is isolated, the official said. What’s more, she sees little margin for maneuver on the conditions of any further support for Greece and is skeptical about Tsipras’s claims that he can raise revenue by cutting corruption and increasing taxes on the rich, the official added.

“Europe will continue to show solidarity with Greece, as well as other countries particularly affected by the crisis, if these countries undertake their own reforms and savings efforts,” Merkel said in an interview with Hamburger Abendblatt published Saturday.

While euro-area officials want Greece to stick to the austerity demands of its existing bailout agreement, Tsipras is seeking a debt writedown so he can increase public spending.

The danger is that the Greek financial system is left without funding long before Tsipras’s May deadline for a deal.

At the moment, the country has a special dispensation from the ECB because it’s considered to be complying with the bailout program. That means its debt can be used in central bank refinancing operations even though it is rated junk.

‘No Surprises’

“There will be no surprises if we find out that a country is below that rating and there’s no longer a program that that waiver disappears,” ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said at an event in Cambridge, England, on Saturday.

Greek bonds have tumbled since Tsipras’s Jan. 25 election victory. Ten-year yields posted their biggest weekly increase since May 2012 and bank stocks have dropped 38 percent.

The French government has so far offered the strongest encouragement to Greece.

“It’s legitimate for them to say we want to discuss how we can lower the weight of this debt,” Sapin said Sunday. “We can discuss, we can postpone, we can alleviate. But we won’t cancel it.”

Obama’s View

U.S. President Barack Obama weighed in, questioning demands further austerity. “You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression,” he said on CNN Sunday. “When you have an economy that is in freefall there has to be a growth strategy and not simply an effort to squeeze more and more out of a population that is hurting worse and worse.”

Tsipras meanwhile has already started to roll back the austerity program. He asked for the resignation of Emmanuel Kondylis, chairman of the fund overseeing the country’s privatization program, and Paschalis Bouhoris, its chief executive officer, a spokeswoman for the fund said late Friday.

The Greek Finance Ministry on Saturday hired Lazard Ltd. to advise on its debt strategy. Prior to the appointment, Matthieu Pigasse, the head of Lazard’s Paris office who has advised Greece in the past, said a 50 percent haircut would give Greece a “reasonable” debt burden.

“We need time to breathe and create our own medium-term recovery program,” Tsipras said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News on Saturday. “Despite the fact that there are differences in perspective, I am absolutely confident that we will soon manage to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, both for Greece and for Europe as a whole.”

source:bloomberg.com

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull are understood privately to be talking to each other about the future leadership. Photo: Andrew Meares, Nic Walker

Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop, under growing pressure from their colleagues to challenge Tony Abbott for the prime ministership, are now actively considering their options, bringing closer the prospect of a strike against Mr Abbott in the weeks ahead.

The two top candidates for the Liberal leadership had been rebuffing their colleagues’ demands, but the shock loss of the Queensland election on Saturday jolted the party.

By Sunday, Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop had started actively weighing their options for the first time. The two are close political friends. They are understood privately to be talking to each other about the future leadership of the party, raising the prospect of a joint ticket.

Both publicly declared their loyalty to Mr Abbott on the weekend. But a new Fairfax-Ipsos poll will do nothing to calm jangling Coalition nerves, despite Mr Abbott attempting to tie off more unpopular policies.

With his leadership under extreme pressure, Mr Abbott will finally walk away from his signature paid parental leave scheme on Monday after doggedly defending it as a core belief for years.

Itself a widely criticised $5.5 billion “captain’s call” which was announced without reference to the party room, Mr Abbott will finally run up the white flag at the National Press Club, accepting his friendless policy – a high profile election promise – was unaffordable and is henceforth “off the table”.

“I have listened to the feedback from my colleagues and from mums and dads around Australia – and they have said that, with our current budget constraints, the better focus now is on childcare if we want higher participation and a stronger economy. So a bigger, better PPL scheme is off the table,” he will say, according to speech notes provided by his office.

He will instead propose a new childcare assistance deal, and will also use the speech to flag a jobs package, new tighter national security laws, and changes to foreign investment rules.

It comes as voters across the country are abandoning the Coalition in droves.

Just three in 10 expect Mr Abbott to make it to the next election compared to seven out of 10 who say Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is safe in his position. Mr Shorten has also widened his advantage on the question of preferred prime minister, with half of all voters, or 50 per cent, choosing him over the incumbent, on 34.

A Queensland-style electoral rout now looms as a genuine possibility in 2016 with a Fairfax-Ipsos poll, showing the ALP has surged to the lead with a primary vote of 40 per cent, equalling its best performance in the months following the unpopular May budget last year.

The Coalition’s percentage has slipped backwards to 38.

The result puts Labor solidly ahead after preferences with 54 per cent of the vote to the Coalition on just 46 per cent. That represents a 7.5 swing away from the Coalition approaching the halfway mark of its first term and would see around 36 Coalition seats surrendered if the swing were uniform.

The statistically weighted nationwide telephone survey of 1405 adults was conducted from Thursday to Saturday – before the stunning Queensland result which looks to have wiped roughly the same number of state seats off the LNP column in the Sunshine State.

Mr Abbott’s approval rating – those voters who approve of his performance (29 per cent) minus those who disapprove (67 per cent) – has tanked after a disastrous start to 2015 and now stands at minus 38. That represents a precipitous 19-point deterioration in his approval rating since December when it was already in strongly negative territory at minus 19.

It is a lower approval rating than any of the previous three prime ministers at the same point of their first terms in office with John Howard registering an approval of 46 per cent and Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard registering 74 and 33 respectively.

Mr Shorten’s approval is in positive territory with fewer detractors than supporters giving him an approval rating of plus 10 – up five points since December.

The result is sure to strengthen the arm of a growing number of Coalition MPs who believe Mr Abbott should relinquish the leadership in favour of either Communications Minister Turnbull, Foreign Affairs Minister Bishop, or Social Services Minister Scott Morrison.

The Coalition’s first preference vote has dipped 3 points since December to be just 38. It reached 45 per cent at the September 2013 election while Labor’s was just 33 at that time.

Based on preference flows from that election, Labor enjoys an 8-point buffer with 54 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote to the Coalition on 46. The Coalition achieved an actual share of the vote in 2013 of 53.5 to Labor’s 46.5.

However when voters were asked where their second preference would go now, Labor’s lead grew to a landslide-inducing 12-point advantage with a 56 per cent share of the overall vote to just 44 for the combined Liberal and Nationals parties.

Liberals are now actively discussing the leadership in the wake of a horror start to 2015 capped off by the Prime Minister’s self-inflicted knights and dames controversy, and the spectacular repudiation of the Liberal National Party government in Queensland.

Many worry that the Newman LNP government was of a similar ilk to the Abbott administration in Canberra, suggesting it will go the same way unless radical surgery is undertaken.

Senior ministers continue to rally to the Prime Minister’s cause, claiming he will lead the government to the next election. A two-day planning and policy cabinet meeting is scheduled to begin on Tuesday with ministers preparing to confront Mr Abbott on his performance.

They will be watching nervously on Monday during the Press Club address. The address has now assumed critical significance in his survival with MPs looking for evidence that he has the plans and the communications wherewithal to carry them to voters. But insiders admit a process of questioning and destabilisation is under way which may now be unstoppable.

A senior backbencher, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr Abbott’s tenure as Prime Minister was already terminal, with the only questions being how it ends and when.

He said it was in a “death spiral” primarily because Australians had decided on him and they “would not come back” to the Coalition under his leadership.

The government’s woes appear to be particularly focused on the leadership with voters expressing relatively high levels of confidence and satisfaction on some of the key policy issues.

For example, nearly three quarters of voters (72 per cent) say they are confident that the government is doing a good job of responding to the terrorist threat, and comfortably more than half think action needs to be taken to rein in potentially burgeoning Medicare costs – including via a $5 cut in the rebate for non-concessional patients.

A surprisingly high one in four voters even backed the awarding of an Australia Day knighthood for the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, despite the “captain’s pick” decision of the Prime Minister becoming the flashpoint for what may be an assault on his leadership.

Labor is now bracing for the possibility of a switch to a new prime minister and the potential of an election this year if the new leader gets a poll bounce and seeks to capitalise on it by seeking a fresh mandate.

source:smh.com.au

Την ανάγκη να θεσπιστεί ένα «νέο συμβόλαιο μεταξύ Ελλάδας και Ευρώπης» επισήμανε ο γάλλος υπουργός Οικονομικών Μισέλ Σαπέν μετά τη συνάντηση που είχε με τον Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη το απόγευμα της Κυριακής στο Παρίσι.

Ο έλληνας υπουργός Οικονομικών τόνισε ότι μαζί με τον γάλλο ομόλογό του κάθισαν στην ίδια πλευρά του τραπεζιού και έβαλαν απέναντί τους το πρόβλημα, με στόχο να δοθεί λύση που να είναι επωφελής για όλη την Ευρώπη. Το ίδιο θα πράξει η ελληνική κυβέρνηση με ΕΕ, Κομισιόν και ΔΝΤ, δήλωσε ο κ. Βαρουφάκης.

Η συνάντηση του υπουργού Οικονομικών Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη με το γάλλο ομόλογό του Μισέλ Σαπέν διεξήχθη σε εξαιρετικά φιλική ατμόσφαιρα, το απόγευμα της Κυριακής το Παρίσι. Ο υπουργός Οικονομικών εξήγησε ότι αυτό που επιδιώκει η ελληνική κυβέρνηση είναι «ένα νέο συμβόλαιο», που ο ίδιος θα ήθελε να το ονομάσει «κοινωνικό συμβόλαιο».

Στη διάρκεια της συνέντευξης Τύπου που ακολούθησε τη συνάντηση, ο κ. Βαρουφάκης επανέλαβε ότι δεν είναι προτεραιότα η άμεση εξασφάλιση της επόμενης δόσης και παραλλήλισε την Ελλάδα με τοξικομανή που για πέντε χρόνια περίμενε συνεχώς τη δόση του.

Σύμφωνα με το χρονοδιάγραμμα που παρουσίασε, η ελληνική κυβέρνηση σκοπεύει έως το τέλος Φεβρουαρίου να παρουσιάσει τις αναλυτικές προτάσεις της και στη συνέχεια για περίπου έξι εβδομάδες σκοπεύει να έλθει σε επαφές και συζητήσεις με τους θεσμούς και τους εταίρους (Κομισιόν, ΕΚΤ, ΔΝΤ) προκειμένου να καταλήξει σε μια λογική συμφωνία μαζί τους.

Ο Γάλλος υπουργός Οικονομικών δήλωσε την ικανοποίησή του για την ουσιαστική, σχεδόν δίωρη συνάντηση εργασίας που είχε με τον κ. Βαρουφάκη και επανειλλημένα διαβεβαίωσε για τη θέληση της Γαλλίας να «συνοδεύσει» τη νέα ελληνική κυβέρνηση στις προσπάθειές της.

Συζήτησαν εφ’ όλης της ύλης και σύμφωνα με τον κ. Σαπέν οι κοινές τους πεποιθήσεις βασίζονται σε 4 βασικά στοιχεία: Κατ’αρχάς η Ελλάδα είναι και θα παραμείνει στην Ευρωζώνη, κοινός στόχος είναι η ανάπτυξη, ιδιαίτερα για την Ελλάδα που έχει χάσει το 25% του ΑΕΠ, να έλθει μέσα από τις επενδύσεις, και τέλος ένα αποτελεσματικό και δίκαιο φορολογικό σύστημα.

Ειδικότερα, για το θέμα της φορολογικής μεταρρύθμισης, ο Μισέλ Σαπέν ανακοίνωσε ότι πρότεινε την ενίσχυση της συνεργασίας με την ελληνική κυβέρνηση και ότι θέτει στη διάθεσή της τις υπηρεσίες των εμπειρογνωμόνων που διαθέτει.

Ικανοποίηση στην κυβέρνηση

Μήνυμα ότι η διαπραγμάτευση με τους εταίρους θα οδηγήσει σε αμοιβαία επωφελή λύση για την Ελλάδα και την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, χαρακτηρίζει, με δήλωσή του, ο κυβερνητικός εκπρόσωπος Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδης, την αποψινή συνάντηση Βαρουφάκη-Σαπέν, στο Παρίσι.

«Η ταύτιση των δύο Υπουργών Οικονομικών σε μία σειρά από κομβικά ζητήματα αποδεικνύει ότι οι θέσεις της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης βρίσκουν πλέον γόνιμο έδαφος στην Ευρώπη» αναφέρει ο κ. Σακελλαρίδης και προσθέτει ότι στο ίδιο πλαίσιο κινήθηκε, με συνέντευξή του στο CNN, ο αμερικανός πρόεδρος Μπάρακ Ομπάμα.

Ο κυβερνητικός εκπρόσωπος υπογραμμίζει ότι ο ελληνικός λαός «μπορεί να είναι βέβαιος ότι η κυβέρνηση θα τιμήσει την εντολή που του έδωσε με αποφασιστικότητα και νηφαλιότητα».

Πηγή:in.gr

Ένα εύκολο απόγευμα πέρασε σήμερα η Άρσεναλ στο «Εμιρέιτς Στέιντιουμ», καθώς συνέτριψε 5-0 την Άστον Βίλα, στο πρώτο παιχνίδι της ημέρας για την 23η αγωνιστική της Premier League και «έπιασε» προσωρινά τη Σαουθάμπτον στη βαθμολογία.

Με γκολ του Τζόντζο Σέλβι στο 83′ η Σουόνσι έκανε τη μεγάλη έκπληξη και νίκησε 1-0 τη Σαουθάμπτον στο «Σεντ Μέρις».

Ετσι, οι «Αγιοι» έχασαν μεγάλη ευκαιρία να πλησιάσουν τη Μάντσεστερ Σίτι στη δεύτερη θέση της βαθμολογίας, ενώ πλέον μοιράζονται την τέταρτη με την Αρσεναλ.

Τα αποτελέσματα και οι σκόρερ της 23ης αγωνιστικής:

Χαλ-Νιούκαστλ 0-3
(40΄ Καμπεγιά, 50΄ Αμεόμπι, 78΄ Γκουφράν)

Κρίσταλ Πάλας-Έβερτον 0-1
(2΄ Λουκάκου)

Λίβερπουλ-Γουέστ Χαμ 2-0
(51΄ Στέρλινγκ, 80΄ Στάριτζ)

Μάντσεστερ Γ.-Λέστερ 3-1
(27΄ Φαν Πέρσι, 32′ Φαλκάο, 44΄ αυτ. Μόργκαν – 80΄ Βασιλέφσκι)

Στόουκ Σίτι-ΚΠΡ 3-1
(21΄, 34΄, 90+2΄ Γουόλτερς – 36΄ Κράντσαρ)

Σάντερλαντ-Μπέρνλι 2-0
(20΄ Γουίκαμ, 34΄ Ντεφόου)

Γουέστ Μπρομ-Τότεναμ 0-3
(6΄ Έρικσεν, 15΄, 64΄ πεν. Κέιν)

Τσέλσι-Μάντσεστερ Σίτι 1-1
(41΄ Ρεμί – 45΄ Νταβίντ Σίλβα)

Άρσεναλ-Άστον Βίλα 5-0
(8΄ Ζιρού, 56΄ Οζίλ, 63΄ Γουόλκοτ, 75΄ πεν. Καθόρλα, 90+2΄ Μπεγερίν)

Σαουθάμπτον-Σουόνσι 0-1
(83΄ Σέλβι)

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Πηγή:in.gr

Eurozone officials are increasingly worried that Greece’s €172bn bailout will expire at the end of the month and potentially plunge it into chaos, after a series of meetings with the new Greek government convinced them Athens is unaware of how perilous its financial situation has become.

Yanis Varoufakis, the new Greek finance minister, embarked on a tour of European capitals, starting with Paris on Sunday, intended to garner support for a renegotiation of its bailout and debt burden.

EU officials were dismayed on Friday when Mr Varoufakis rejected a bailout extension — and refused to co-operate with the “troika” of international creditors. It capped a tumultuous first week in power for the anti-austerity government, whose announcements reversing spending cuts and privatisation roiled markets and wiped 40 per cent off the value of Greek banks.

There was some relief when Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s radical leftwing prime minister, struck a more emollient tone over the weekend, saying he was not “seeking conflict” and hoped to “reach a mutually beneficial agreement”. He also revealed he had called Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, to reassure him of his intention to reach a deal.

But patience in Greece’s creditor countries, particularly Germany, is running thin. Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament and a German Social Democrat, urged Greece to go easy with its repeated attacks on Berlin. “Bashing the Germans might go down well in some quarters. But it is also short-sighted and gets us nowhere,” he told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. On Saturday, Chancellor Angela Merkel, bluntly warned Athens not to expect “a further haircut”.

German officials are also annoyed that Mr Varoufakis, who visits London on Monday and then Rome, has made no contact with Berlin.

Officials familiar with the conversations between eurozone policy makers and Athens said they were no wiser about what sort of international financial help Greece was seeking or how it intended to negotiate. Eurozone finance ministers want to discuss Greece’s needs at their next meeting on February 16 — if not sooner, by telephone.

The bailout programme is due to expire on February 28. If it is not renewed, Greece will for the first time in five years be left without an EU financial backstop. Because the International Monetary Fund is unlikely to distribute funds without the EU’s participation, Athens could lack access to emergency funding to repay billions of euros in debt due in the coming months.

EU officials believe the country could eke out €4.3bn in payments owed to the IMF next month, but will run into a wall at the beginning of June when the first of two bonds worth more than €3bn must be paid. Without bailout funding, and an ongoing sell-off in the private bond markets, Athens would be forced to default.

Of more concern to many officials is the Greek banking system, which after massive outflows of deposits, is relying on cheap ECB loans to fund day-to-day operations. ECB officials over the weekend made it clear that if the programme expires at the end of February, the central bank would be forced to cut off their liquidity loans.

But they have not clarified whether Greek banks could still access back-up central bank financing, known as emergency liquidity assistance. Although technically loaned by the Greek central bank, it must be approved by the ECB which has been cagey on whether such lending would be allowed.

Since the outbreak of the eurozone crisis, Greece’s banking system has always been seen as the most likely route to an “accidental” Greek exit from the euro. Without ELA lending, Athens would probably have to print its own currency to keep its banking system running.

Mr Draghi has told colleagues he is planning to drive a hard bargain on bank liquidity — a similar strategy used with Cyprus in March 2013, which forced Nicosia to accept onerous bailout terms. But Mr Draghi is also wary of unelected central bankers taking a decision that would force Greece from the euro.

The French government is hoping to act as broker between a defiant Athens and its increasingly exasperated Berlin.

“France is well placed to be the link … between this Europe of budgetary rigour and this Europe of the south and in particular Greece, which is suffering,” Michel Sapin, finance minister, said last week. But Paris, like Berlin, has ruled out the debt cancellation demanded by Athens, underlining how few allies the new Greek government has.

source:ft.com