Paris in last-minute push to save Greece

By Nicholas Vinocur

Hollande’s negotiators are trying to help Greece draft a proposal that can’t be refused.

With Greece facing a final ultimatum on its membership in the eurozone, French negotiators are providing minute-by-minute advice to Athens to ensure their latest proposals can be accepted by creditors.

The eurozone has given Greece until Thursday to present new plans to clinch a deal with its creditors.

Previous attempts failed because the Greeks refused to enact all the reforms requested by the creditors in exchange for fresh financial aid, while the creditors balked at considering a restructuring of Greek debt.

This time, French negotiators are working closely with their Greek counterparts to ensure that the latest proposals do not include any elements that might be rejected out of hand by Germany or the International Monetary Fund, a source close to President François Hollande said.

“It’s a mediating role we’ve played from the start,” the source said. “Now, since we know what the Germans are thinking, what the IMF is thinking, and we have seen what caused the last paper to fail, we can say to the Greeks: ‘Be careful about this, avoid that.’”

French negotiators in Brussels had been consulting regularly with their Greek counterparts to amend the proposal. The negotiating team is the same one that has been present all throughout talks with Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spent Thursday presenting an outline of the latest version to his cabinet in Athens, the source said.

“We’re helping them a lot to ensure that it succeeds on the first try,” the source said, “because there is not a lot of time, and we cannot allow this version to fail. It needs to succeed on the first try.”

On Wednesday, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told parliament that a “global plan” for Greece was on the table that included economic reforms for Athens, measures to ensure they were implemented, long-term investment into the Greek economy and a discussion about restructuring Greece’s debt.

While Germany has long opposed the possibility of rescaling or restructuring Greek debt, the idea has gained momentum in Europe in the wake of Greece’s No vote in a Sunday referendum on the terms of a bailout package.

Tsipras’ calls to ease his country’s huge debt burden got a major vote of support from European Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday.