Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, still hoping for a political solution to the Greek debt problem, has called for an emergency summit of EU leaders this month if the bloc’s finance ministers fail to reach an agreement over the country’s bailout at a meeting on Friday.
Following talks with EU council president Donald Tusk in Athens on Wednesday, Mr Tsipras said the bailout negotiations must reach a conclusion by Easter to inject rescue funds into the struggling economy.
Eurozone finance ministers will be meeting to discuss Greece’s second bailout review in Malta on Friday. Greek officials have been in Brussels for crucial talks with their bailout partners this week in an attempt tocome to to an agreement on the pension cuts and tax increases being asked of the government.
Athens has set its sights to a political solution since the start of the crisis in 2010 but time and time again, despite sympathetic noises from high ranking officials, decisions are being referred to the Euro Working Group technical team and the Eurogroup, which influenced by the powerful German finance minister and his allies takes a political decision to delay whichever review the Greek programme is at, is no matter how many concessions Greek governments are prepared to make.
