Greece is ready to give 'big no' to bad deal: PM Alexis Tsipras

By Marcus Bensasson & Nikos Chrysoloras
ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he's ready to assume responsibility for the consequences of rejecting an unfair deal with creditors. In a sign that he's being taken at his word, officials from the Netherlands, Portugal and Germany said they are bracing for a breakdown in talks that could roil the currency bloc.

With a viable solution "the Greek government recently elected by the Greek people will bear the cost of carrying through this difficult agreement," Tsipras said in Athens on Wednesday. Without one, "we will assume the responsibility to say `the big no' to a continuation of the catastrophic policies for Greece."

The Athens Stock Exchange erased its gains after the prime minister's comments with the clock ticking down to an expiration of Greece's financial lifeline on June 30. Talks between Greece and its creditors are stalled as euro-area finance ministers prepare to meet in Luxembourg on Thursday. The gathering has been billed as a last chance to seal an agreement on as much as 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in bailout aid. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a parliamentary hearing in Berlin that his government is making contingency plans in the event that Greece's euro-area-backed bailout expires without an agreement or extension.

Similar preparations were being carried out in the rest of Europe."We are prepared for eventualities," Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem told lawmakers in The Hague. Apart from the Dutch preparations, "it's also for a large part at a European level -the European Commission, the ECB," he said.

The Athens stock index fell 3.2 per cent, after dropping over 9 per cent in the previous two days.

"Striking an agreement with our partners is a historical imperative that we cannot afford to ignore," Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras warned on Wednesday in an annual monetary policy report. Failure to reach an accord would "mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and -most likely -from the European Union."