European ministers heaped pressure on Greece Friday to speed up negotiations to unblock critically needed bailout funds and avert a dangerous default, showing frustration after months of bogged down talks. The eurozone's 19 finance ministers ended a meeting in Riga without a breakthrough towards unlocking 7.2 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in bailout cash, with the threat of a messy exit by Greece from the euro still hanging in the balance.
"It was a very critical discussion," said Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem after the talks ended, with frustrated eurozone ministers angry at the lack of progress after two months of negotiations. "There remain big, big problems to be solved for Greece," he said. Athens is fast running out of money to both pay its creditors and carry out everyday government, raising the risk of a default as huge loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank approach in the coming weeks.
But increasingly irate ministers refuse to release any cash without a comprehensive list of reforms that the hard-left Syriza government has so far refused to accept, forcing Athens to expropriate funds from local state agencies and authorities to stay afloat. Greece's Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the talks in Riga were heated but pointed the finger to mixed messages from his European partners, all while adding that a deal was within reach.
"The cost of not finding an agreement would be enormous," Varoufakis said. But Athens is walking a dangerous line as ECB chief Mario Draghi, also at the talks, again evoked the possibility of pulling back emergency financing to Greece's crippled banks, a lifeline to the Greek economy. Greek officials and Athens' international creditors have been locked in technical discussions over the reforms Greece must adopt in exchange for the funds, with a deadline originally set for the end of the month.
However, ministers said this process was showing its limits and that the negotiations needed a new approach, which some reports said would mean relocating the talks back to Athens. Varoufakis dismissed the idea, arguing the Greek people would interpret it as a return of the dreaded 'troika' of auditors that oversaw the bailout programme before the radical leftists took power. "The notion that we go back to the troika, is simply groundless," Varoufakis said. Greece's radical-left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras swept to power in January on a promise to break with austerity demanded by its EU-IMF creditors. Defying his paymasters, Tsipras pushed welfare laws through parliament last month and has continued to refuse measures agreed by the previous government.