Brussels, 03/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 June, the European Commission said that it had invited Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras to a meeting that evening in order to “discuss the state of play in the negotiations” between Greece and the institutions (European Commission, ECB and IMF). “We do not expect any final outcome, this is a first discussion, not a concluding one,” said European Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas.
The spokesperson refused to say whether representatives of the IMF and ECB, and the head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, would be at the talks, simply stating that there were a lot of comings and goings at the Commission and Juncker was in permanent contact with all involved. Schinas said it was a personal invitation.
The spokesperson refused to comment on any matter that might arise in the talks, explaining that the Commission had decided not to comment on the “many papers” that were doing the rounds among the parties involved in the talks.
The institutions are fine-tuning what some have described as a final offer for Greece. The Greek government announced that it sent in its own proposal on Monday evening. MNI described the documents put on the table by the two parties as “irreconcilable.”
The Greek prime minister issued a press release explaining that: “So far, we have not received any comments regarding our proposal, or about any other document, from the institutional partners.” Commenting on the talks with Juncker, he said: “I am going to discuss the proposal of the Greek Government. To explain to him that, today more than ever, it is necessary for the institutions - and especially for the political leadership of Europe - to accede to the realism that the Greek government has been adhering to for the last three months (...).”
The Greek government wants a reasonable target for the primary budget surplus. The head of the ECB, Mario Draghi, said: “The current downgraded growth perspectives of Greece should be taken into account to determine what the appropriate fiscal targets should be. A strong agreement is needed: one that produces growth, social fairness, fiscally sustainability, addresses remaining factors of instability of the financial sector. strong in the design and its implementation (with prior action). There is a general will, strong determination that an agreement should be found. Once it's done, financing will come.” (Elodie Lamer and Mathieu Bion)