Brussels, 10/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, is not expected to attend a possible meeting on the fringes of an EU-Latin America summit between the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and his French and German counterparts.
The meeting had not been officially confirmed by the time the summit kicked off, but the French and German leaders said they were prepared to meet with Tsipras, if he requested a meeting.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, said that Juncker's only official engagement was his attendance at the summit. On 3 June, he explained: “Technical work is continuing to try to bridge differences between the different positions and create conditions for unanimous agreement in Eurogroup. For this final push, the European Commission is of the view that the ball is clearly in the court of the Greeks, who need to follow up to the agreement at a meeting with Juncker”.
Schinas said Economic and Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici had “informed Greek government earlier in the day that their latest suggestions did not reflect the state of discussions with Juncker or Moscovici” (talks on Monday between Tsipras and Juncker and between Moscovici and Greek minsters Nikos Pappas and Euclid Tsakalotos).
While open to talks with Tsipras, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, pointed out that work had to continue with the three 'institutions' (the European Commission, ECB and IMF). She said upon arrival in Brussels that every day counted. French president François Hollande said that there should be a single message for Greece, that speed was of the essence and one shouldn't think of solutions that would be bad for Greece, bad for the European Union and bad for the eurozone. He called on the parties to work hard and fast and to reach their goal.
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Tagesspiegel: “It is not true that they (the institutions, Ed.) made concessions and we made concessions and that there is a deadlock. They made no concessions. When we met the first time in February they came up with pretty much what they have now offered. What was presented by Jean-Claude Juncker to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with the support of Angela Merkel and François Hollande, was a return to the starting position as if the negotiations had never happened.” He listed concessions made by Greece, such as on primary surpluses: “We offer them primary surpluses I don't believe in. Just to come closer to their positions. We offered them an increase of the VAT, which will be problematic for us.”
Varoufakis said Eurogroup wanted a comprehensive agreement before it will agree to disburse finance, but Greece says a comprehensive agreement must include restructuring of the debt and an investment programme. He said: “We are not asking for one new euro for the Greek state. What we are proposing is an intra-troika debt swap. We have €27 billion that we owe to the ECB, bonds from 2010 and 2011. They are maturing now very quickly, €6.9 billion alone this summer. These debts are a major problem because they prevent Greece from participating in Draghi's “Quantitative Easing”…It's like a rock preventing Greece from returning to the markets. We should get a new loan from the ESM, the EU rescue fund, which can go directly to the ECB - so it is neutral to the Greek debt. But this would push the €27 billion further to the future and it allows Greece to return to the markets. It is a question of political will. He pointed out that moreover: “The institutions are telling us, if we legislate before we reached a comprehensive agreement this will be seen as a unilateral action and it will blow up the negotiations.” (Elodie Lamer)