– Franco-German rift –
For the first time in the history of the single currency, the Eurogroup even proposed a temporary Greek exit from the euro, an idea first floated by Germany, although that proposal appeared to have been dropped.
Other measures include letting the “troika” of creditors back on the ground in Athens after they were expelled by Tsipras’s government, and securing creditors’ approval for any legislation affecting issues covered by the bailout.
The crisis has exposed tensions between the eurozone’s two biggest powers with pro-austerity Germany going head-to-head with France, which has been supportive of Greece during the crisis.
French President Francois Hollande said Paris would do “everything” to keep Greece in the euro and ruled out the “temporary Grexit” proposal.
Five years have elapsed since the Greek debt drama began, but the latest instalment has opened deeper-than-ever rifts in the European single currency, the heart of the post-war dream of a politically unified Europe.
In Greece, there is growing alarm at capital controls that have closed banks and rationed cash at ATMs for nearly two weeks, leading to fears that food and medicine will soon run short.
“We don’t sleep, everybody’s worried,” a Greek pensioner said, watching with concern the events taking place in Brussels several thousand kilometres (miles) away.
The ECB is providing emergency liquidity to keep Greek banks afloat but has frozen the limit, with fears that failure to reach a deal could cause it to shut off the taps completely.
