Greece and its creditors can still reach a deal on what reforms the cash-strapped country has to implement to get more loans and avoid default, in time for the next meeting of euro zone finance ministers on June 18, the chairman of the ministers said.
Speaking to reporters on a visit to Helsinki, however, Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned that time was running out fast and the institutions representing the creditors needed time to assess whether new proposals Greece might make.
Dijsselbloem, who is also the finance minister of the Netherlands, said that while only a few issues remained to be solved in the four-month-old negotiations, the latest proposals from Athens, submitted to the institutions on Monday, did not make the cut.
“We are still open to serious alternatives, but the alternatives of the last couple of days have not been of a high enough standard,” he told a news conference after talks with Finish Finance Minister Alexander Stubb.
“In the last talks which I had together with (European Commission) President (Jean-Claude) Juncker and Prime Minister (Alexis) Tsipras, we made quite clear that there is room to put in alternative measures, but… the bottom line is that it has to add up, because Greece has to become financially independent again,” he said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Jussi Rosendahl, writing by Jan Strupczewski)
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 