Galery

1

Another attempt to reach an agreement between Greece and its creditors failed at today's meeting of the euro zone finance ministers. It lasted less than an hour and during the press conference that followed it, President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem announced that another meeting would take place later this week.

Upon entering the hall, some finance ministers expressed pessimism about reaching an agreement between Athens and its creditors.

Germany’s Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble said creditors had not received substantial proposals from Greece. His Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb said earlier that he had very low expectations whereas Slovakia’s Minister of Finance Peter Kazhimir stated, "Probably we will soon have to meet again."

The ministers’ statements followed the reports that, late last night, Athens sent the representatives of the creditors a wrong copy of its proposals and submitted the correct document early today.

Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said that the creditors welcomed the proposals of Athens. "Greece’s proposals are a welcome step but more work together with the institutions is needed. The Eurogroup is to reconvene this week. We need a deal in the coming days," he wrote on his Twitter account.

For his part, Jeroen Dijsselbloem also pointed out that the new proposals of Athens could be accepted as "the basis for work." The Eurogroup has asked the institutions to consider the proposals with a view of reaching a final agreement at the end of the week," he said.

Dijsselbloem added that the Eurogroup would send no report to the participants in the EU summit that will begin at 8:00 pm, thus dispelling the rumours of a possible delay of its implementation. With regard to the settlement of the Greek sovereign debt problem on which Athens insists, the president of the council of euro zone finance ministers said the issue would be discussed "after the implementation of the overall programme."