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The first positive assessments of Athens’ proposal to the creditors have been followed by a thorough examination of the budgetary measures described therein, which in turn have led to new obstacles in the attempt to reach an agreement. As a result, creditors again have called the Greek prime minister, who hastily left for Brussels today. There he will meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde and probably Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem. German sources indicate that creditors had addressed the invitation personally to Alexis Tsipras due to their unwillingness to negotiate with Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis.
 
Sources from the Greek Ministry of Finance state that yesterday Athens submitted to the representatives of creditors legal and technical details on the proposed measures. In statements to the Greek daily Kathimerini, however, a European representative says that the time for reaching an agreement is too short and the Greek proposals have many weak points. In his words, they are violating many of the issues on which creditors have a firm position whereas the main differences are associated with VAT rates, the pension system and the proportion of the proposed measures.

According to creditors, the proposal of Athens is based on the introduction of new taxes that will cause a deeper recession than cutting costs, resulting in a bigger budget gap that will require the introduction of additional measures.
 
At the same time, the German edition of Suddeutsche Zeitung reports a conflict between the creditors themselves. The publication states that the International Monetary Fund is accusing the European Commission of demonstrating excessive tolerance towards Athens by adopting the Greek proposal as a basis for negotiations, although it substantially differs from the proposal that the three creditors had approved and presented to Alexis Tsipras. On the other hand, EU officials are criticizing the International Monetary Fund of not being interested in reaching an agreement. The International Monetary Fund insists on Greece cutting insurance costs and increasing VAT so that the tax secures 1% of GDP annually. Greece's proposal provides for annual VAT revenue amounting to 0.74%.

The second commitment that Athens has not yet implemented is the submission of a specific list of prior actions, as stated by Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Monday and reiterated by European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas yesterday.

Since early Tuesday, creditors have worked intensely to reduce the gap in their positions on various issues but expectations that they may reach a staff level agreement by 8:00 pm Greek time when the Eurogroup meeting will begin are not defined as realistic.

Therefore, the goal is for Athens and creditors to reach a specific agreement by tomorrow so that the EU summit ratifies the same day. Then subsequently, the parliaments of a number of European countries will vote on it and MPs will probably be invited to approve both the granting of a tranche of financial assistance and the extension of the current rescue programme. At the same time, the feeling is that Greece will need a third programme to be able to meet its financial requirements over the coming months. Therefore, the extension will be necessary so that the negotiations on this new package of financial support be conducted.

Some European politicians indicated in yesterday's statements that it would be possible to strike a deal with Athens by the end of the week but it would require a lot of work. Indicative are the words of Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, who said, "We could not come to a solution that would allow me to say the meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Wednesday would be just formal." French Minister of Finance Michel Sapin said creditors had specific data that would allow them to work towards reaching an agreement. "It now remains to confirm them," he said. For his part, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Pierre Moscovici stressed that despite his belief that there would be an agreement by the end of the week, "the issues, associated with VAT and the pension system, require more work."