While the government in Greece expresses optimism that an agreement with creditors will come soon, European Union officials in Brussels say that there is still a long way before the bailout program review.
Through press leaks and official announcements, various Greek officials expressed the view that creditors will back down on the last minute and an agreement is certain. Despite the fact that there is minimal progress in technical talks, for some reason there is the belief that the review process will be circumvented and Greece will get a favorable deal. There were also reports citing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker saying that the European creditors are close to a compromise deal with Greece.
Greek government officials believe that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and the European Commission President on the sidelines of Thursday’s EU summit. The Greek PM will ask European leaders to secure a political solution to the Greek debt issue.
In Brussels, however, they say that the Riga summit is not a regular EU summit but a meeting with Eastern Europe country leaders to discuss issues that pertain to Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia. Greece is not in the agenda and cannot be in the agenda because in such meetings there is no discussion of member-country issues.
Official sources in Brussels also denied that Juncker made any comment regarding a compromise in order to come to a deal with Greece. Instead, European creditors will stay firm on their demands and will not back down on issues that the Greek government agreed on the February 20 Eurogroup.
Despite the belief many Greek officials share — that creditors will see the measures they propose lead the Greek economy back to austerity — EU officials seem to maintain the same hard stance since negotiations started.
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