Greece is seeking a political solution to the financial aid problem as negotiations on a technical level are progressing very slowly and Brussels warn that time is running out.
On Thursday’s Euro Working Group (EWG), European Commission officials said that Greece has seven days to complete the fifth review in order for funds to be disbursed in June.
The Commission has ruled out an emergency Eurogroup for next week as Athens asked. Commission officials in Brussels said there is still a long way to complete the fifth review and a staff level agreement is extremely unlikely at the moment.
According to Greek media, the creditors’ representatives said that Greece’s proposals are not adequate and basic issues have not been resolved yet. They noted that the Greek team is not providing all pertinent data and most of the proposals do not have accurate price tags.
Government spokesperson Gavriil Sakellaridis announced on Thursday that a deal may be possible as soon as Sunday. However, top European and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials said that Greece is still far from an agreement.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a teleconference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on Thursday. Tsipras asked the two European leaders to help expedite negotiations, after Merkel and Hollande had expressed the will to support Greece in last week’s EU summit in Riga, Latvia.
Meanwhile, top EU officials and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde do not rule out scenarios of a Greek bankruptcy and exit from the Eurozone. Several officials have expressed their surprise for the Greek government’s optimism.
Head of the Greek negotiating team Euclid Tsakalotos said that in order to reach an agreement and avoid bankruptcy, there has to be an agreement at the highest political level. As he said, “the two sides will never fully converge, but the general impression is that they are converging.” He further said that IMF’s tough stance is the biggest hurdle in negotiations at the moment.
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