(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan on Friday spoke of the progress being made in reaching a bailout deal with Greece.
"Significant progress is being made towards a bailout deal for Greece," he tweeted.
In a second post, Padoan, a member of the Eurogroup that is deciding on the deal, added: "In these hours we are making important steps forward towards a solution for Greece."
Meanwhile, former president of European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet has said the Greek bailout story could have a happy ending.
"The ongoing discussions could end fortunately," Trichet said in an interview on CNBC television Friday.
"The new proposals that are made by the Greek government are demonstrating a real will to have an agreement. We will see. I remain very, very prudent myself, but clearly we have something which is very different from what was the position at the moment of the referendum," he said.
Trichet, who was ECB president from 2003 to 2011, said that trust was the challenge, as the Greek government had supported so many different positions in the past.
"What makes me reasonably confident-reasonably confident, but prudent-is that the people of Greece clearly demonstrated that they didn't want to leave the euro, that they understood that they had to remain in Europe, in the euro area as well," he said.
"That was clearly the results of the referendum, because the 'No' vote paradoxically meant in the presentation of the government 'Yes' to Europe, 'Yes' to the euro, but we want to have a negotiation which would be as tough as possible," he said.
Greeks now realize they must present a credible plan to Europe and the rest of the world, he added.
Greece has requested a third bailout of ‚¬53.5 billion ($59 billion) over three years. The new proposals make a number of important concessions to creditor demands.
The Eurogroup is expected to present a decision on the latest Greek bailout proposals on Friday or Saturday.
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