European leaders cannot agree on aid for Greece

Finance ministers and other officials of the eurozone countries have not reached a consensus on the provision of emergency aid to the Greek economy.

The inability to come to an agreement for the second week in a row underscores the depth of disagreement among officials on the core issues: where to find the money to help the Greek economy, what to do about the country's worsening national debt.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble told reporters after nearly 12 hours of talks that some "issues are so complicated that we have not come to a consensus.

Greece is seeking to unblock a package, under the international financial aid program, of 31.5 billion euros, or $40.2 billion. If ministers reach an agreement, Greece could receive more, some 44 billion euros ($56 billion), as the international program calls for two tranches by the end of this year. In June this year, the program, worth 130 billion euros ($167 billion), was suspended because Greece failed to meet the terms of the loans.

In closed-door talks that began Tuesday night, ministers and international officials argued fiercely about giving Greece another 33 billion euros ($42 billion) in addition to existing bailouts, in hopes that the country would achieve a budget surplus by 2016. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, insisted that financing Greece through 2016 would help reduce the country's national debt.

In order to optimize financial aid, the ministers proposed lowering interest rates on Greek debt, lengthening debt maturities that would allow Greece to buy back its bonds at deep discounts and asking the ECB to return profits on Greek bond transactions.