No deal: EU talks over Greece debt end without agreement

A meeting of eurozone finance ministers trying to agree a deal on Greece’s debt crisis broke up in Brussels without agreement on Thursday. The Greek government badly needs €7.2bn from creditors to keep its economy going and to help with a €1.6bn payment it has to make to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by next Tuesday. Otherwise, Athens may default on its debts which could lead to the country leaving the single currency. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said there must be a debt deal with Greece before financial markets open on Monday.

We are prepared to work all night, but we had nothing real to work with. The loss of trust is becoming extreme… It is hard to see how we can go on.

One eurozone official told Reuters.

She also told a meeting of European leaders before an EU summit in Brussels that Germany “will not be blackmailed” by Greece. More talks will be scheduled in the coming days but Germany’s finance minister earlier expressed pessimism that a deal could be struck. Wolfgang Schaeuble said the two sides were “even further apart” as discussions took place between the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the IMF and European Central Bank (ECB). The creditors presented Athens with new proposals over the economic reforms it wants made in an attempt to find a breakthrough over its bailout but Greece was still not on board, raising fresh doubts about whether it was possible to clinch a deal before the end of June.

It is a negotiation between the institutions and the Greek government. We have not been able to throw anything back at anyone because there’s nothing on the table.

Finnish finance minister Alexander Stubb.

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