BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Greece missed its Monday deadline to send a list of economic reform plans to EU finance ministers for review. A Greek government official says Athens will now submit its proposals on Tuesday.
The Greek list of reforms includes proposals to crack down on tax evasion and corruption. The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis says he's confident that the country's lenders will accept the Greek government's proposals. If they don't, the Brussels deal could collapse and Greece will default on its debts next Saturday.
Progress remains uncertain. The next step is a teleconference on Tuesday with EU finance ministers who'll decide whether or not to accept Greece's proposals.
If they do, Greece will get a four-month extension of its existing bailout agreement to work on new terms for the long haul.
This is what Berlin wanted, not Athens. The newly-elected government of Alexis Tsipras wanted to ditch the bailout, and its austerity measures. The prime minister promised Greeks he would get them out of deal they hate.
While Tsipras describes the Brussels agreement as a "negotiating success," members of his own Syriza party don't see it that way. One of the party's elder statesmen, Manolis Glezos, considers the outcome in Brussels a broken promise, and apologized to the Greek people for taking part in what he called an "illusion."
Although Tsipras won the election on a pledge to end the domination of Greece's economy by foreigners - especially Germany - Glezos, for now, remains the Syriza party's lone voice of dissent.
(Source: CNTV.com)
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