European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who is viewed as sympathetic to Greece during its drawn out negotiations with its creditors, has hit out strongly at the position adopted by Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, over the weekend.
Mr Junker confirmed yesterday he had turned down a request to meet Mr Tsipras over the weekend following the latter’s address to the Greek parliament on Friday night where he described the latest debt resolution plan as “absurd.”
The European Commission's President said that Tsipras had failed to tell parliament and the Greek people that the Plan remained open to suggestions about how subsidies to that country’s poorest pensioners could be maintained in an overall reform of pension spending.
He added, “He was my friend, he is my friend, but frankly, in order to maintain it, he has to observe some minimal rules.”
There are suggestions that the pair may meet on Wednesday ahead of an EU summit on Latin America, but Mr Junker said he is cautious about any new meeting until he received the revised plan from Greece which he was promised over the weekend.
Meanwhile the President of the European Parliament has also weighed into the debate. Martin Schulz, a German, said time was running out for Greece and the consequences could be dramatic
He warned the Greeks about “turning down the outstretched hand again” and also suggested that if Greece were to leave the eurozone it would also spell “automatic exit from the EU.”
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will meet his Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis in Germany today. Mr Schaeuble has been one the the Syriza-led coalition's harshest critics and the pair have clashed publicly in the past.
Mr Varoufakis told a Greek newspaper last week that that latest proposals tabled by Greece's creditors are "borderline insulting."
He continues: "It was an aggressive move designed to terrorise the Greek government."
After not paying last Friday's €300m repayment to the IMF on Friday, Greece is now due to repay €1.6bn to the Washington-based institution at the end of June.
Financial Times Brussels bureau chief, Peter Spiegel, told Newstalk Breakfast today that the Greek debt crisis is becoming more and more difficult to manage.
