Riga

By Jeff Black, Nikos Chrysoloras & Stefan Riecher

The European Central Bank is studying measures to rein in Emergency Liquidity Assistance to Greek banks, as resistance to further aiding the country?s stricken lenders grows in the Governing Council, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

The Foreign Affairs minister, Bogdan Aurescu has participated on Monday in the ministerial reunion of the Eastern Partnership, organized in the sidelines of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC), in Luxemburg, a press release by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) sent AGERPRES, informs.

Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES PHOTO

With pressure growing on state coffers as cash reserves run low without any immediate prospect for the release of rescue loans, the government on Monday signed a legal degree obliging state bodies, with the exception of pension funds, to transfer their reserves to the Bank of Greece for the state?s use.

By Paul Tugwell & Rebecca Christie

Greece and its creditors remained at loggerheads with time running out to unlock aid in exchange for economic reforms and avert a default.

By Rebecca Christie

Greece needs to show euro-area nations what it could deliver by mid-May to unlock new aid payments and avoid default, the European commissioner in charge of euro matters said.

Greece needs to urgently do much more to present an acceptable plan to gain further EU financing, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi says.

With the clock ticking on Greek negotiations with the European Union for the release of another 7.2 billion euros bailout funds, Draghi said Greece's framework for bailout financing going ahead is still lacking.

Developments, most negative, continued over the weekend on the so-called "Greek issue", both domestically and overseas, with German FinMin Wolfgang Schauble downplaying the possibility of a deal with Athens to unblock bailout funds at next week's closely watched Eurogroup meeting in Riga.

Brussels Group will get back down to business on Saturday at around 3 pm (Athens time), in a meeting that will take place in Paris, France for “technical reasons,” as announced by the Greek Ministry of Finance.

The aim of the meeting is to prepare for the next Eurogroup to be held on Friday, April 24 in Riga, Latvia.

Greece and its international creditors will meet Saturday in Brussels to discuss Athens' massive debt bailout program and reforms it must adopt in exchange for urgently needed funds, the EU said Friday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu on Thursday received Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, adviser for European affairs to the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, in the context of the latter's visit to Romania.

Photo credit: (c) Simion MECHNO / AGERPRES ARCHIVE