CRI听力:Eurozone Finance Ministers Reject Greek Request for One-month Bailout Extension as Referendum

Eurogroup finance ministers shut out their Greek counterpart from a meeting in Brussels on Saturday and issued a statement without him that accused Athens of breaking off negotiations with the EU unilaterally.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had earlier held out hopes of a last-ditch deal with creditors to prevent Greece from defaulting on its 1.6 billion euro loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is due on June 30.

But then negotiators were blindsided by Greece's surprise move to call on a public referendum on June 5, after the Tuesday deadline to pay up.

The 11th-hour announcement of a referendum has derailed five months of intense talks.

Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem, says now they were discussing a "Plan B" – on how to limit the damage of a default and deal with possible aftershocks.

"Well I've always said, and will say that the door is open. It was not the institutions that walked away from the talks last night, it was the representatives of the Greek government that walked away from those talks. It was not us who said the talks have come to an end in a negative way, it was the Greek government who have said that what is on the table now deserves a 'no'. That's all I can say. The process has not ended. It will never end probably. We will continue to work with Greece".

The Greek parliament is due to vote later on whether to ratify the referendum that allows Greek voters to decide on the terms of a new deal.

Ordinary Greeks, however, are now lining up outside banks, to withdraw their savings that could lead to a possible bank run.

Earlier, The European Central Bank (ECB) had given emergency liquidity funding to shore up the Greek banking system, but is now reluctant to throw another life-line.

But Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis blamed international lenders for making an 'inadequate proposal' that his government just couldn't accept.

"The refusal of the Eurogroup today to endorse our request for an extension of this agreement for a few days, a couple of weeks, so as to allow the Greek people to deliver their verdict on the institutions' proposal, especially given that there is a very high probability that Greeks will go against our recommendation and vote in favor of the institutions' proposal... That refusal will certainly damage the credibility of the Eurogroup as a democratic union of partner member states and I'm very much afraid that that damage will be permanent."

Greek's brinkmanship has now pushed Europe's single currency into a stage of rupture for the first time in its 16-year life. If Greece exits the Euro, the financial fallout could send shockwaves across the global economy.

For CRI I'm Poornima Weerasekara.