Hollande, Merkel and Tsipras held talks on Greek debt – Le Figaro

On the eve of the G7, held in Germany, the French president, the German chancellor and the Greek prime minister exchanged by telephone on Saturday about the difficult negotiations on debt settlement Greek.

An interview to try to advance the negotiations stopped. On Saturday, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held talks on Saturday to do “advance negotiations with Greece” on the settlement of its debt, said a French diplomatic source.

This three telephone interview took place in the late afternoon, on the eve of the G7 in Germany on Sunday. “They made a point position to advance the negotiations between Greece” and its creditors, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Union, the source said. No other part of the contents of this exchange was specified.

The negotiations between Athens and the three institutions will be one of the topics of discussions at the G7 summit Sunday and Monday, chaired by Angela Merkel, where will also be the Chairman of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. The ECB President, Mario Draghi could also get there, according to a European source.

This phone interview comes at a time of friction in the negotiations on the resolution of the Greek debt. Saturday, an official of the European Commission told Reuters that the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker refused a telephone interview with Alexis Tsipras. The President of the Commission “has declined because there is no progress in the discussions and proposals the Greek side promised Wednesday to deliver Thursday have failed,” the official said.

A version later denied by Athens but confirmed by a spokesperson for the Commission told AFP. “I can confirm that there has been a request for a phone call (…) it did not happen this Saturday,” she said, adding that “the President and Prime Minister Juncker Tsipras will definitely stay in touch in the coming days “, as agreed at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday evening.

Alexis Tsipras hired a showdown this week with the creditors of Greece n ‘ not honoring a debt maturity and opting for a refund at once, by the end of the month, the $ 1.6 billion owed to the IMF in June. Greece, the IMF and the European Union are opposed for weeks on an austerity reform plan, which determines the release of 7.2 billion remaining to be paid since autumn 2014, under the international assistance plan implemented in 2010.