Greek taxis block Athens streets during a 48-hour strike. A similar Greek roadblock in Brussels?
If this morning’s media accounts are any indication, European leaders are still scrambling to come up with a deal on a second Greek bail-out ahead of Thursday’s emergency eurozone summit here in Brussels.
In our dead-tree edition, we focused on moves to ensure Greek banks don’t melt down and the sudden emergence of a proposal to tax eurozone banks to help pay for bail-outs. Our friends and rivals over at Reuters also mention the new bank levy proposal, but led with leaders continuing to “struggle to reconcile competing proposals” – a similar line to what we’ve been hearing.
Our German counterparts at FT Deutschland also report that things remain up in the air, focusing on the continuing split between the European Central Bank and the German-backed group of countries who are pushing for some bondholder participation in the bail-out – a move the ECB fears will lead to a Greek default and further eurzone contagion.
In other words, either a deal is at hand and the town’s leading journalists don’t know about it – or we’re still a long way off with just 48 hours to go. Brussels Blog is betting on the latter.
Across the globe: Gideon Rachman and his FT colleagues debate international affairs on