'Last chance' for Greek debt deal : EU Council President

Strasbourg

EU Council President Donald Tusk warned today that Greece and its European partners now faced the very last chance to reach a rescue deal needed to keep debt-ridden Athens in the eurozone.

"Without unity on Greece we will wake up in four days in a different Europe; this is really and truly the final wake-up call for Greece and for us, our last chance," Tusk told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras earlier told MEPs that Athens "will tomorrow file new concrete proposals, credible reforms, for a fair and viable solution," after five months of fruitless talks. 

Left-wing Tsipras won power in January promising to end the austerity policies adopted by previous governments in return for two massive international bailouts worth 240 billion euros. 

Greece's 18 eurozone partners warned Tuesday that Athens had to come up with a convincing, concrete new programme of reforms by Thursday night -- ahead of a crunch EU summit on Sunday -- or risk being forced out of the single currency bloc.

Tusk told the parliament that Tsipras' address and the replies from MEPs showed how "divided we are on Greece", but he urged all sides now to avoid recriminations and show each other respect.