Athens says the near agreement, EU officials deny – Reuters

Lefteris Papadimas

ATHENS (Reuters) – The Greek government said Wednesday that work on drafting a proposed agreement with creditors had begun, paving the way for the release of financial assistance, but European officials quickly denied the remarks, saying it is rather wishful thinking.

Without agreement between Greece and its lenders on a reform program, Athens may default in payment or bankruptcy, in the space of a few weeks.

Greece must pay 300 million euros to the International Monetary Fund on June 5 and many government officials say she can not afford to do so.

Further discussions were started in Brussels on Wednesday and a senior Greek government said that Greece and its creditors had started drafting a draft agreement along the lines of Athens, who does not want to hear about a reduction of wages and pensions and wants a low primary surplus target at first.

“At the Brussels Group now, procedures for drafting an agreement at the beginning negotiators,” he does -he said, referring to talks between Athens, the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He added that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras would be in constant contact with other leaders to reach an agreement.

The Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said, however, that Greece and its creditors were still far from agreement. “We are working very intensively in order to allow an agreement at the expert level. We have not yet reached,” said he said.

Other leaders of the eurozone have been more direct. One of them said that the remarks of Athens made no sense. Another said: “If only it were true.” More …