(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble Thursday expressed his reservations if an agreement could be found with Greece on its debt crisis during today's extraordinary meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers.
"We have not made much progress, it is time for Greek representatives to decide but then to tell their people about the state of play. The decisions lies within the Greek authorities, so far they have not moved forward, rather backwards, therefore I am not very optimistic about today's meeting either," he told reporters ahead of the meeting in Brussels.
On his part, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the Eurogroup, said "the only
thing we have presented to the Eurogroup is what the institutions have made together." "We don't have an agreement from the Greeks on that, so we will have to hear in the Eurogroup meeting from the Greek side what their ideas are, if they could agree to, what they can't agree to and we'll take it from there," he added.
Joerg Schelling, Austrian finance minister, said "Two minutes ago a
document arrived which we are examining, during the night there was no progress, we will see if now this document is acceptable." "The Eurogroup meeting will be delayed for 30 minutes for the delegations to examine this document. Last night Greece refused any kind of commitment and came up with new wishes. It amazes me how carelessly the Greek government is dealing with their country. If this document doesn't get approved by the Finance Ministers today, we will have to consider the alternatives we have been preparing," he warned.
Pierre Moscovici, EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, told reporters that "we have had good exchanges of views. We know each other well. We understand the demands and needs of each other. Our points of views are getting closer to get a complete agreement." Meanwhile, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was holding critical talks in Brussels today with the heads of the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, in order to save his country from defaulting next week and possible exit from the Eurozone.
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