Greek government offers sweeping proposal to creditors

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece finally met a deadline that counted Thursday, delivering a series of sweeping proposals to its creditors before midnight to set off a mad rush toward a weekend deal to stave off a financial collapse of the nation.

The package of reforms raised hopes Greece can get a rescue deal that will prevent a catastrophic exit from the euro after key creditors said they were open to discussing how to ease the country's debt load, a longtime sticking point in their talks.

In a significant about-face, the government caved in to demands for a new round of austerity measures, including sales-tax hikes and cuts in state spending for pensions the left-leaning Greek government long had resisted.

In the text of proposals sent by Athens late Thursday, the government conceded to demands it previously had refused to accept -- mostly on moving various categories of goods and services to higher sales-tax rates -- in exchange for a new $59 billion bailout package.

Many of the proposed reforms were harsher than those roundly rejected by the Greek public in a bailout referendum last Sunday. But the government said in return, it "would seek a commitment from creditors to negotiate ... further measures to restructure the long-term debt."

The government scheduled an emergency vote in parliament late today to win backing for the belt-tightening plan and said it believed it had the support needed for an endorsement.

After months of foot-dragging despite impending chaos, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met a midnight deadline with more than an hour to spare. The spokesman for eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem tweeted it was "important for institutions to consider these (proposals) in their assessment" of the Greek situation.

Finance officials from the European institutions and the International Monetary Fund were to fine-comb through the package today before the 19 eurozone finance ministers assess it Saturday.

In ideal circumstances, a summit of all 28 European Union leaders would be able to approve it Sunday.

Earlier Thursday, Donald Tusk of Poland, who chairs the EU summits, indicated European officials would make an effort to address Greece's key request for debt relief.

"The realistic proposal from Greece will have to be matched by an equally realistic proposal on debt sustainability from the creditors. Only then will we have a win-win situation," Tusk said.

Greece long has argued its debt is too high to be paid back, and the country requires some form of debt relief. The International Monetary Fund agrees with the premise, but key European states, such as Germany, have resisted the idea.

On Thursday, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the possibility of some kind of debt relief would be discussed over coming days but cautioned it may not provide much help.