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EU chief rebukes Greece

Kruen - The European Union's exasperation with Greece burst into the open on Sunday when its chief executive rebuked leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and warned that time was running out to conclude a debt deal to avert a damaging Greek default.

In unusually sharp terms, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker accused Tsipras of distorting proposals by international creditors for a cash-for-reform agreement and of dragging his feet in putting forward alternative proposals.

Technical negotiations

He urged Athens to put its own ideas on the table swiftly to enable talks to resume on the sidelines of an EU-Latin America summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

A government official said in Athens that Greece wanted to continue to negotiate "at a political level" to find convergence with the lenders. However, the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund have made clear the numbers must first add up in technical negotiations before there can be a political deal.

Tsipras had been expected to return to Brussels on Friday last week to resume negotiations. But faced with a backlash against the creditors' proposal in his Syriza party, he went to parliament in Athens instead and denounced the offer as "absurd".

Urgently needed funds

Juncker came close to accusing him of duplicity.

"I don't have a personal problem with Alexis Tsipras, quite the contrary. He was my friend, he is my friend. But friendship, in order to maintain it, has to have some minimum rules," he told a news conference at a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies in Germany.

Asked when the last chance was for Greece to reach a deal and receive urgently needed funds remaining from a 240bn bailout, Juncker said: "For sure there will be a deadline."


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