LUXEMBOURG: Greece must make the next move towards reaching a debt deal with its EU-IMF creditors but there is little chance of an agreement at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers Thursday, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said.
"Now the next step to make the deal credible, also financially sustainable, will have to come from the Greek side," Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, told reporters as he arrived for the talks in Luxembourg.
"Too little progress has been made and there are still some major gaps between the Greek position and the institutions," he said referring to Greece's European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund bailout monitors.
Asked whether he expected new reform proposals from Greece at the meeting of the 19 eurozone ministers, Dijsselbloem replied: "The announcements have not been very positive, I don't have a lot of hope... time is becoming very, very short."
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he would present "ideas," but did not specify whether that meant a new Greek plan to replace previous proposals already rejected by the creditors.
"Sometime ago Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said quite correctly for Europe to succeed anywhere it must succeed everywhere. I think he is exactly spot on," Varoufakis said.
"Today we are going to be presenting the Greek government ideas along those lines. The purpose is to replace costly discord with effective consensus."
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