greece problem after problem

Germany downplayed the chances of an imminent deal with Greece as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s government rejected the latest terms set by creditors to unlock bailout aid.

The downbeat tone from Berlin reinforced the brinkmanship at play as Tsipras met in Brussels Wednesday with the heads of the three creditor institutions: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

With the talks stretching into a fifth hour, creditors pressed the Greek side to drop measures including a planned extra charge on company profits, a tax on electronic gaming and an increase in employer contributions to pensions, according to a Greek government official. The negotiations were very tough as a result, the official said, asking not to be named as the meeting is private.

“Our impression is that there’s still a long way to go,” German Finance Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told reporters earlier on Wednesday at a regular government briefing in Berlin. Creditor institutions have made “exceptionally generous” concessions to the Greek government, and “it’s now up to the Greek side to show some movement,” he said.

Stocks in Athens fell on Wednesday as Tsipras dug in over the conditions attached to any accord before he left for Brussels, taking to Twitter to denounce creditors for refusing to accept his own proposals. His government later rejected a counter proposal tabled by creditors, saying it differed little from an earlier document which had also been shot down.

‘Special Interests’

“The repeated rejection of equivalent measures by certain institutions never occurred before,” Tsipras said on his Twitter account. “This odd stance seems to indicate that either there is no interest in an agreement or that special interests are being backed.”

Greek stocks and bonds fell as fresh cracks appeared between Greece and its creditors, paring strong gains from earlier this week. The Athens Stock Exchange index closed 1.8 percent lower, while the yield on the two-year government bond rose 136 basis points to 22.4 percent.

The sparring is focused on a variety of policy measures ranging from an overhaul of the Greek pension system to sales tax on catering. Greece moved toward creditors on Monday with a list of proposals that included steps to eliminate early retirement options, an increase in the sales tax, higher taxes for middle- and high-income earners and the introduction a new levy for companies with annual net income of more than 500,000 euros ($559,000).

Creditor Blueprint

While European officials welcomed the Greek list as a basis for further talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it was creditors -- not Greece -- who provided th blueprint for a deal based on a meeting she hosted in Berlin on June 1.

Greek Labor Minister Panagiotis Skourletis fingered the IMF for the blockage, saying on state-run radio that the Fund doesn’t accept tax measures for the wealthy and continues to insist on across-the-board taxes.

“I insist on one crucial point: the IMF won’t touch small pensions, they must be protected,” Lagarde was cited as saying in an interview with France’s Challenge magazine released Wednesday. “That said, measures proposed by Athens must be credible. One can’t build a program on the sole promise of better tax collection -- as we have heard for the past 5 years, and with very little results.”

As the talks between Tsipras and Greece’s creditors continued into the evening, the Greek official said the start of a meeting of euro-area finance ministers scheduled for 7 p.m. might be pushed back. Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings, was also in the room with Tsipras.