Greece running out of time to avoid default, leaders concede

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/12/greece-running-out-of-time-to-avoid-default-leaders-concede



Until Friday EU executives have refused to countenance the prospect of default and the issue has not been discussed at any official level

Greece running out of time to avoid default, leaders concede
Ian Traynor
12 June 2015 13.40 EDT

Greece has less than a week to strike a deal with its eurozone creditors to avoid defaulting on its massive debts and perhaps being kicked out of the single currency area, with German leaders and top European Union officials now conceding that default is the likeliest outcome.

Negotiations between the leftist government in Athens and its creditors are now at their lowest ebb since Alexis Tsipras became Greek prime minister in January.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, said on Friday that talks with Greece would carry on ahead of next Thursday’s key meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Luxembourg. That meeting is now viewed as the deadline for a decision on Greece’s fate.

Merkel was said to have resigned herself to a Greek default, and at a meeting on Thursday night in Bratislava, eurocrats preparing for the Luxembourg talks included the default scenario in their discussions for the first time.

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I've been following the Grexit and the Brexit closely over the last moth or so.

I think Greece will exit the EU.

The UK is slightly more problematic. The SNP (in Scotland) want out of the EU. Cameron wants to renegotiate the terms of the UK / EU deal.