Greece's Tsipras 'confident' of meeting debt deal deadline

[STRASBOURG] Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday he was confident of meeting an end-of-the-week deadline set by eurozone leaders to reach a bailout deal or risk leaving the euro.

"I am confident that in the next two or three days we will be able to meet the obligations in the best interests of Greece and also the eurozone," Mr Tsipras said in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Greeted by a mixture of boos and cheers from European MPs, the Greek premier added: "Our proposals for financing our obligations and restructuring our debt will not burden European taxpayers."

Eurozone leaders agreed at an emergency summit late Tuesday to give Greece until Thursday to submit a new reform plan after Greek voters rejected creditors' demands in a referendum, with a full EU summit on Sunday the final deadline to reach a deal.

EU President Donald Tusk warned the European Parliament ahead of the speech by Mr Tsipras that failure to reach a deal "may lead to the bankruptcy of Greece" and cause geopolitical problems for Europe.

Mr Tsipras called on all sides to work together to prevent a "divided Europe".

"This is a European problem which requires a European solution... let us not allow it to become a divided Europe," he said.

He said Greece, which has imposed tough reforms in exchange for two EU-IMF bailouts since 2010, had been used as an "austerity laboratory" by the rest of Europe.

AFP

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