The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he was ready for another compromise “if all parties can agree”. He made a statement when he arrived at the Eurozone summit on Sunday. “We owe it to European citizens, who want a united Europe”, he added. “This evening, France will do everything it can to reach an agreement that would allow Greece to stay in the Eurozone and help Europe move forward”, the French president François Hollande stated when he arrived in Brussels. Greece leaving the Eurozone would be “Europe going backwards, and I don’t want that”, Mr Hollande added. The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, also said he would fight to the last millisecond to reach an agreement on Greece.
The much more pessimistic German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, said there would be no “at any cost” agreement on Sunday. She talked about trust issues with the Tsipras government.
The 19 heads of state and government for the Eurozone countries held an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the propositions Greece put forward on Thursday evening. These leaders will need to decide if the propositions are good enough to start negotiations on a third rescue plan for Greece. This plan would involve three instalments through the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). The leaders must base themselves on the first conclusions drawn by the Finance Ministers, whose meeting was suspended on Saturday and continued on Sunday. That meeting should finish a little before the start of the Eurozone leader’s meeting.
(Source: Belga)
