By Lino González Veiguela
The lack of consensus and the measures which are both unrealistic and lacking in solidarity demonstrate the minimum efforts of EU countries to take responsibility for the arrival of refugees…
President Tusk has given an ultimatum when declaring on 19 June: “We are close to the point where the Greek government will have to choose between accepting what I believe is a good offer of continued support or head towards default.” According to Tusk, only a few days are left. The deadline, 30 June, is the day Greece is due to pay back €1.6 billion to the IMF, an amount it currently cannot afford. If it is to pay, Greece would first have to accept further funding from the “Institutions”, which would come only if the Greek government accepts undertaking a series of reforms dictated by them. The most contentious point of the proposed reforms is the request that Athens save or raise an additional 2.5% of GDP for the state budget, including through cutting pensions and/or raising taxes (VAT in particular)— possibilities that the Tsipras Government has recurrently rejected.
