BRUSSELS: The EU's top economic official called Thursday for a rapid end to talks over Greece's bailout, warning that failure to reach agreement soon would further harm the country's debt-wracked economy.
The warning by Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for economic affairs, came a day after Brussels rejected an appeal by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for an emergency summit on the issue.
"We should conclude this review as soon as possible," Moscovici told reporters in Brussels. "Further delay would be bad for the Greek economy."
Moscovici said that Greece and its European Union-International Monetary Fund creditors were "99 percent of the way there... there are just very few elements still to be finalised."
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Wednesday said the next meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss how to avoid a new Greek crisis could take place within the next two weeks.
After nearly a year of relative calm, Greeks are angered by the fresh reforms, or "contingency measures", demanded by creditors, which Athens says break the terms of the 86-billion-euro ($90 billion) bailout agreed in July 2015.
Greece needs to complete the first review of its bailout soon to unlock funds so that it can meet a huge European Central Bank payment this July. It is also seeking debt relief in return for reforms.
Moscovici said the talks needed to make progress on a mechanism under which the extra contingency measures -- a key demand of the IMF -- would only kick in if it misses its spending targets.
"We need to have a mechanism which shows very precisely how those measures would be taken if necessary... the mechanism must be legislated by the Greek parliament, that has to be automatic," he said.
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