EU s Juncker wants to avoid Grexit

“We are going to turn down the rhetorical volume, and with all respect for the Greek people, we are going to understand what it is the Greek people have said”.

Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Deutschlandfunk radio Tuesday that Tsakalotos “doesn’t have the same attitude as his predecessor”.

In a dramatic press conference in Brussels that followed a meeting of Eurozone Leaders arranged in the aftermath of Greece’s Sunday austerity referendum, Tusk and Juncker used raw and emotional language to describe what both called a final chance for Greece to reach a definitive conclusion or face what Tusk called a “black scenario”.

But European heads of state voiced their displeasure that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras walked into the summit without a new plan to solve his country’s financial crisis, a years-long drama that now has shut Greek banks for a week and could force the country out of the eurozone. Respecting the rules, Hollande said, “is a condition of living together.” “What’s at stake is to know the place of Greece in the European Union and thus the eurozone”, Hollande said””.

A visibly mad Juncker then rounded on recent comments from the Syriza government in Greece and, in particular, its ex- Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis, who referred to European creditors as “terrorists” in the run-up to Sunday’s plebiscite. “We have to put our little egos – or in my case very large ego – away and deal with the situation”, he said.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he was texting the Greek leader as the clock ticked towards this evening’s summit of eurozone leaders. “I find that unacceptable”. “It will begin in the next few hours with the aim of concluding until the end of the week at the latest”, he said._11:20 p.m. Italy’s prime minister doesn’t just want to keep Greece in Europe.

He berated MEPs who had heckled him for looking at his telephone during their speeches.

“I am strongly against Grexit but I cannot prevent it if (the) Greek government does not do what is asked of it”, Juncker told reporters. “I am doing my work, so stop this stupid banter, for which there is no cause”.

“What will happen if there is a referendum in another country, putting in doubt a possible compromise with Greece?”

Mr Juncker said it is right that Mr Schulz intervenes on Greece, regardless of how “sensitive it is and whether or not, he actually has a formal mandate”.