Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in having secret negotiations with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report said.
The four parties are called the “Frankfurt Dinner Group” and confer three or four times a week via teleconference or telephone. The group was formed after the dinner the European officials had following the European Summit in March, according to the German financial newspaper.
The purpose of the secret talks is to create a new level of communication between high officials and technical teams so that negotiations can continue even after official talks fail.
According to the report, Tsipras’ latest statements were decided by the Frankfurt Dinner Group. The statement that “there are disagreements in four issues, labor law, social security law, raise in value added tax and the primary surplus figure, but the Greek government is working so that there will be an honest compromise with creditors,” was a statement “prepared” by the group.
Other than technical help, the Frankfurt Dinner Group gives Europe the message that the Greek Prime Minister has an energetic and constructive role in negotiations, while Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is constantly stalling negotiations, searching for excuses.
The secret negotiations, however, are not very easy and that is the reason they have not yet agreed on a list of reforms that Greece can present to Friday’s Eurogroup. European partners, the report concluded, hope that Tsipras will have a concise proposal by the May 11 Eurogroup.
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