Greek debt crisis: Eurozone summit offers hope of return to talks

Could a real Greek endgame be finally at hand?

“And that is the big problem… there’s no trust anymore between the finance ministers in the Eurogroup and the Greek government”, Malta’s finance minister Edward Scicluna told CNN. It has taken on new significance since Greece’s financial crisis worsened. Muscat said in an interview that leaders had been angered by Tsipras’s decision to called a snap referendum when a deal seemed to be within reach last month.

Even in France, the euro zone country most sympathetic to Athens, an opinion poll published on Tuesday showed one in two people want Greece to leave the euro zone.

“The Greek government has fought with great success that it does not want a programme”, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said before the meeting. Merkel made clear he had it the wrong way round – any kind of emergency funding could only follow a Greek commitment to a comprehensive rescue program.

“The process will be swift, it will be speedy, it will begin in the next few hours with the aim of concluding until the end of the week at the latest”, Tsipras said.

European Union economy commissioner Pierre Moscovici said Greece must make reforms to break the deadlock. Some are grumbling that Greece has effectively voted itself out of the European Union with its conduct over the past few days. “I am confident that a technical solution for Greece can be found with goodwill from all sides…”

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said: “There was a promise for today. For the Greek government, it’s every time “manana” (the Spanish word for tomorrow)”.

Mr Tsipras had been buoyed by a triumph in Sunday’s referendum, where an overwhelming majority of Greeks backed his call to reject the reforms that creditors had last proposed.

They will now stay shut until at least Thursday, with a €60 (£42) daily limit on ATM withdrawals.

You need Javascript and either Adobe Flash or Html5 to view this video. “Today in Brussels the Greek Government must explain how it plans to move forward in this debacle”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed that the clock is running down fast as she arrived for talks in Brussels.

In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama talked with Tsipras by phone Tuesday.

But instead of a formal blueprint, Greece’s new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, spoke from handwritten notes about his country’s intentions to rein in costs and prop up its creaky fiscal underpinnings while avoiding some of the tough austerity measures that Greece’s creditors have demanded.

One European official who asked not to be identified said Tuesday’s meeting was a final chance for a deal.

“The stark reality is that we have only five days left to find the ultimate agreement”.

European officials say they believe the impact of a Greek exit from the euro could be contained.

Greece’s actions are not aimed at clashing with Europe, but at saving the country and the Eurozone, Tsipras said. At the same time they have saturated the media with negative statements about Greece’s future in the Eurozone, emphasizing the Greek delegation’s recklessness and incompetence.

Tsipras benefited from a feeling among Greek citizens that after suffering through years of austerity, they don’t have anything to lose.

[BEIJING] Greece’s debt default will not have a huge impact upon China as the country has only limited investments in Greece, state media on Wednesday cited the Commerce Ministry as saying. And suppliers are demanding businesses pay cash up front.

He said the resounding “No” vote in Sunday’s national referendum had given him a fresh mandate “to redouble our efforts to get a socially just and economically sustainable solution without repeating the mistakes of the past”.

“We have very little time”, said Jeroen Dijssebloem, head of the bloc’s finance ministers. “If the capability to find compromises is lost, then Europe is lost”.

And in Brussels, Tsakalotos – who replaced outspoken motorbike-riding predecessor Yanis Varoufakis after he resigned on Monday in a bid to ease the rift with Athens’s creditors – told reporters there had been “progress” at the talks.