EU warns Greece time nearly up to reach deal

The EU’s exasperation with Greece burst into the open, yesterday, when its chief executive rebuked leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras and warned that time was running out to conclude a debt deal to avert a damaging Greek default.

In unusually sharp terms, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker accused Tsipras of distorting proposals by international creditors for a cash-for-reform agreement and of dragging his feet in putting forward alternative proposals. He urged Athens to put its own ideas on the table swiftly to enable talks to resume on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit on Wednesday in Brussels.

In Athens, a government official said Greece wanted to continue to negotiate “at a political level” to find convergence with the lenders.

However, the eurozone and the IMF have made clear the numbers must first add up in technical negotiations before there can be a political deal.

Tsipras had been expected to return to Brussels last Friday to resume talks.

However, faced with a backlash against the creditors’ proposal in his Syriza party, he went to parliament in Athens instead and denounced the offer as “absurd”. Juncker came close to accusing him of duplicity.

“I don’t have a personal problem with Alexis Tsipras, quite the contrary. He was my friend, he is my friend. But friendship, in order to maintain it, has to have some minimum rules”, he told a news conference at a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies in Germany.

Asked when the last chance was for Greece to reach a deal and receive urgently-needed funds remaining from a €240bn bailout, Juncker said: “For sure there will be a deadline.”

He did not mention a date, but EU officials said agreement was needed this week to allow time for ministerial and parliamentary approval of the disbursement of funds before the bailout programme expires at the end of June.

An EU official said the Commission chief had refused to take a phonecall from Tsipras on Saturday to show his displeasure. Juncker confirmed Tsipras had tried to call him but said he first wanted to receive and have time to study a Greek counter-proposal before speaking to him again.

Juncker said he had made clear to Tsipras last week that items to which Greece objected, such as a demand to scrap an income supplement for the poorest pensioners, were open to negotiation if Athens put forward alternatives that yielded equivalent savings. Opinion polls show 75% of Greeks want to stay in the eurozone and a majority want the government to reach a deal with the lenders even if that means more sacrifices.

Juncker said he continued to rule out a Greek exit from the single currency but cautioned that that did not mean he could “pull a rabbit out of a hat” to prevent it if Greece was not willing to make an effort. Juncker is widely seen as the senior EU official most sympathetic to Greece, and his display of anger showed how far Athens has gone in alienating its few allies in the bloc.

Among hardliners in the eurozone, Slovakian finance minister Peter Kazimir said the Greek government had won elections by promising things it could not deliver.

“The eurozone countries are trying to keep them in the eurozone but not at any cost,” he said.

Reuters