Wolfgang Schäuble

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has warned Greece's creditors, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, that its hopes of recovery in 2017 will be compromised if the issue of the country's debt is not addressed in the next few weeks.  

Outgoing US President might have repeatedly called for a debt relief for Greece during his 2-day visit in Athens, but according to German media outlet “Deutsche Welle” (DW), his exhortations have fallen on deaf ears in the German political establishment.

A new pension cut, layoffs and a further reduction of its tax-free threshold are some of the new measures demanded by the IMF in exchange for joining Greece’s new bailout program, in addition to an active rather than an advisory role.

In an interview on Greek state television ERT, the newly-appointed Minister of the Economy, Dimitris Papadimitriou, claimed that there would not be a fourth bailout agreement, saying: “In 2017, Greece will have the surplus that it needs to have.”

All parties agreed on the need for the second review of the Greek bailout program be completed by December during Monday’s EuroGroup meeting.

The Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici dubbed former Greek Finance Minister Yianis Varoufalis an “rampant narcissist” in his latest book titled “If it is midnight in the century”. “He (Varoufakis) hated Dijsselbloem and rejected any negotiations making Greece lose six valuable months”, hew writes in the book.

In an interview to French TV “France 24”, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras said its was time for Germany and Greece’s creditors to fulfill their promises about the debt.

The Greek delegation’s hopes of raising the issue of a possible restructuring of the Greek debt at the EU Summit discussions were quickly dispelled on the first day, as EP President Martin Schulz denied he had taken any initiatives to bring the matter to the table of talks.

The management of the Greek public debt continues to fuel tensions between the IMF and Germany, as the former, via Christine Lagarde, reiterated once more that any prospect of the Fund staying on board the Greek bailout program would be dependent on a debt restructuring.

European Council President Donald Tusk has essentially rejected the proposal by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras for an EU Summit meeting on the Greek issue after the break down of talks between Greece and the Quartet, during a joint press conference with Albanian Premier, Wednesday.