Off the wire
• Feature: Anfield legend Gerrard comes through Galaxy debut with flying colors  • Renowned Chinese economist, senior legislator passes away  • Israel arrests Jewish suspects over torching famous church  • (Sports Focus) Chinese "barefoot" heroine wins Universiade half marathon  • Commentary: Thailand's repatriation of illegal immigrants just a legal issue  • Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- July 12  • Weather forecast for world cities -- July 12  • Slovenian wins green jersey in 8th stage at Tour of Qinghai Lake  • General classification after 8th stage of 2015 Tour of Qinghai Lake  • Indian military kills 3 infiltrators on Kashmir LoC  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Euro summit on Greece reconvenes but deal "not possible"

Xinhua, July 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Eurogroup meeting reconvened on Sunday morning to discuss Greece bailout proposals but finance ministers said negotiations are "difficult" and it is not "possible" to reach a deal.

"I am always optimistic, but it is very very difficult negotiations,because there are many points we have not agreed in between the Eurogroup and with Greece," Hans Jorg Schelling, Austrian Federal Minister for Finance, said before stepping into the meeting.

"Eurogroup continues discussions today, as you saw discussions were quite complicated, so we hope for more progress today," Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission in Charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, said on arrival of the Eurogroup meeting.

"I think it's unlikely the European commission will get a mandate to start the formal negotiations on the third (bailout) program or ESM (European Stability Mechanism) program today," Dombrovskis added.

"It's not possible to reach a deal today," Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir said before going into the meeting.

Italian Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance Pietro Carlo Padoan told reporters before entering the meeting that the main obstacle in moving forward is a lack of trust.

He would like to see the Greek government take concrete actions to rebuild trust and therefore allow concrete negotiations to move forward.

"We have lost so much time. We cannot afford to lose more time anymore," Padoan said.

Eurogroup meeting on Saturday ended without an agreement and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said the negotiations were "very difficult."

"We have had an in-depth discussion on the Greek proposals. The issue of credibility and trust was discussed, and also of course the financial issues involved," Dijsselbloem said at the exit doorstep.

European Council President Donald Tusk announced on Twitter on Sunday that he has canceled the summit of heads of state or government of 28 European Union member states that was originally planed for Sunday afternoon, saying the summit of leaders of 19 eurozone member states will start at 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) to discuss Greece's debt issue.

"I have canceled EUCO (the European Union summit) today. EuroSummit is to start at 16h and will last until we conclude talks on Greece," Tusk said on his official Twitter account.

Greek banks are closed and capital controls have been imposed in Greece since June 29, while ATMs are expected to run out of cash this week. Without emergency assistance, Greece seems to be heading for defaults and a potential exit from the eurozone. Endi