BRUSSELS – It sought a compromise, it was feared the clash, and fears have come true: Greece and Eurogroup collide, ministers can not even write a joint statement and postpone the discussion today very ‘animated’, the new Eurogroup on Monday, in the hope that the summit of heads of state and government of today can find a way to establish a dialogue with Tsipras. Because for now the greek government is firm on his positions and is not going to recede: denies austerity, no longer wants to see the Troika and rejects the European aid plan as it is today, and proposes to replace it with something that gives Tsipras and his ministers leeway to implement their program of government that gives relief to the population.
“There has been progress but not enough to arrive at a common solution,” said the president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem after the meeting. Many ministers wanted that Greece asked an extension of the current program of aid, which would give them the opportunity to negotiate, but within a framework defined and guaranteed. And were ready to send technicians Euro Working Group in Athens to work together with the new government to possible changes to the plan. But Dijsselbloem explained that “serves before a common policy”, and “then the experts can work with that technique.”
Nothing technicians in Athens and then nothing traded Eurogroup before Monday, when There will be another meeting in Brussels. “It ‘been a fruitful discussion. At times a little too frank in tone, but I am optimistic. We continue the conversation Monday,” said Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan. Tone “on” also speaks Dijsselbloem, at the end of a press conference began with two hours late. According to reports, around 22 the meeting was over and the ministers had agreed on a formula to be included in the final communique. There was talk of agreement on a program to extend, amend and finally, three words to satisfy all parties: the Germans who want the program to be accomplished, the Greeks who want to change it, and all those countries that would like an extension of the plan that takes into Greece still under the protection of the Troika.
But the press has never seen the light: Minister Yanis Varoufakis, after a phone call to Athens, has requested that removed the word ‘extended’, and so all the others have replanted their stakes, determined not to give in to the Greeks. That immediately after the end of the Eurogroup issued a statement from Athens with which reject the extension of the rescue program. In Brussels Varoufakis, after the meeting, keeps more conciliatory tone: it was “very constructive, I hope in an optimal solution Monday,” he told the press. But his showdown in front of the 18 partners in the eurozone is leaving the Eurogroup displaced, disrupts the order of business and forces him to a terse press conference at the end of the work. And it’s up to the leaders to resume the discussion in a few hours.
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