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The relations between Greece and Europe are now more tense than ever, and at a time when the lack of funding to Athens is dramatically deepening.

Harsh statements were addressed to Greece on Monday by many European officials who are beginning to lose patience with the position of the SYRIZA and Independent Greeks government, insisting on the immediate implementation of the commitments.

The barrage of negative opinions of the policy carried out by Athens is indicative of the atmosphere in which Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will try to put his request for a political settlement of the financial problems of Greece at the upcoming summit of the European Union in Brussels.

The most explicit messages are coming from Berlin, especially since the tensions between Greece and Germany have increased in recent days. The culmination of this "round" was the appearance of Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis in a broadcast on a German TV station. In addition to the colourful minister, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his coalition partner Panos Kammenos have however also found themselves at the centre of criticism.

Germany’s Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schaeuble was firm that "the new Greek government has destroyed all the trust that was rebuilt." Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel has invited Alexis Tsipras to visit Berlin this coming Monday.

President of the German Federal Bank Jens Weidmann referred to the lack of trust too by stating, “It would be better if you could see more reliability in the statements coming out of Athens. In the first place, it involves regaining trust in the will to implement what has been agreed to."

For his part, EU Commissioner for Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici said once again that Greece must meet its commitments and that its external debt would not be haircut.

"Debt has to be repaid - this is clear. It cannot be wiped out. There will be no haircut, no debt relief," he said explicitly during a conference in Berlin. Moscovici added that the contagion risks to the rest of Europe were much lower than they were two years ago.

"Of course I would like things to happen. I am favourable to a political agreement with Greece, but in the end on conditions that are yet to be met," concluded the Commissioner.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Europe would not be affected by the possible exit of Greece from the euro zone. He added that the European partners should respect Greece but it should respect its commitments.

"Greece is faced with a kind of humanitarian crisis and we have to give an answer. This does not mean that we accept all the demands of the Greek government. We have to respect Greek dignity and find the right approach to the problems faced by Greece," Juncker stressed.

In a sharp statement, Belgium’s Minister of Finance Johan van Overtveldt warned that the provocative tactics of Greece in the negotiations had annoyed and frustrated its partners.

"We live in 2015. Maybe 25 years ago you could develop a communication strategy where your Greek communication is somewhat different from your European strategy, but today that is just too crazy even to think about it. That has annoyed a lot of people," he said in statements to the Financial Times.

"The programme works in Spain, it works in Portugal, it worked in Ireland. But then it does not work in Greece, because the Greek authorities have not done what they needed to do. Do not blame it on the institutions. It is not the programme, it is the execution," added Overtveldt.

In this atmosphere of negative comments and publications in the international media, Greece’s Ministry of Finance has announced that the primary budget surplus attained in 2014 is not 1.5% but 0.3%. This means that the hole in the state budget is 2 billion euro.

At the same time, Greece must find 2 billion euro by Friday, not only to repay part of the loan to the International Monetary Fund to the amount of 336 million euro but also a bond worth 1.6 billion euro that is due to mature at the end of this week.

Meanwhile, the US have expressed concerns about the deteriorating relations between Greece and its European partners. Some representatives of the White House and the US Treasury believe that the impasse in the negotiations is dangerous for the world economy and they have urged all parties to participate in the negotiations in good faith in order to solve the problems.

Within this framework, Washington has already taken steps, and at the highest level at that, both in Athens and other European capitals. In a telephone conversation with Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, economic adviser to Barack Obama Caroline Atkinson has urged the Greek cabinet to fulfil its commitments and to accelerate the negotiations with Brussels in order to finalize them as soon as possible.

Atkinson, who was a close collaborator of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in May 2010 when Greece had requested assistance from the International Monetary Fund, has stated that the impasse is in nobody’s favour. She and her colleagues have sent similar messages to Berlin and Brussels too.
According to sources, Yannis Dragasakis has assured her that Athens is doing everything possible to execute the agreement reached on 20 February. According to him, one country, namely Germany, is trying to cancel the contract and to impose its positions, something that the Greek cabinet would not accept.

Correspondent for the Greek newspaper Ethons in Washington Michalis Ignatiou reports that, recently, the prevailing opinion in the American capital has been that Greece and Europe have returned to the situation in 2010, when Athens was standing on the brink.