Juncker, Tsipras agree on creation of Greek task force for reforms

Greece was warned on Friday that it has to make swifter progress in agreeing reforms with its lenders, as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed in Brussels on the creation of a Greek task force to work with EU experts on structural improvements.

?I don?t think we have made sufficient progress,? Juncker told reporters as he welcomed Tsipras to the Commission on Friday, echoing Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem?s comments that the two weeks following the February 20 agreement on a four-month bailout extensions between Greece and its creditors had been ?wasted.?

Juncker, however, insisted that there was no scope for Greece and its eurozone partners failing to find a way to progress. ?I?m totally excluding a failure... This is not a time for division. This is the time for coming together,? he said.

His comments came in the wake of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble refusing to rule out the possibility that Greece would slip out of the single currency. ?As the responsibility, the possibility to decide what happens lies only with Greece and because we don?t exactly know what those in charge in Greece are doing, we can?t rule it out,? he told an Austrian broadcaster.

In an interview with Germany?s Der Spiegel magazine due to be published on Saturday, European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici strikes a similar tone to Juncker, insisting that the option of a Greek exit should not be considered. ?All of us in Europe probably agree that a Grexit would be a catastrophe ? for the Greek economy, but also for the eurozone as a whole,? he said.

?If one country leaves this union, the markets will immediately ask which country is next,? Moscovici told the...