"IS' the 30 June”. With these words the Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, established the deadline for reaching an agreement with the IMF and the European Union to allow the release of the last installment of aid worth 7,2 billion euros.
"According to the February 20 agreement between Athens and the creditor countries - Vaorufakis explained in an interview with Greek radio VimaFm -, the aid plan has been extended until June 30, therefore an agreement must be reached by that date". The minister also assured that an agreement will be reached “soon”.
However, it does not seem of the same opinion Christine Lagarde, number one of the International Monetary Fund, who yesterday deflated the optimism of Athens by confirming that Greece's exit from the Eurozone remains a possibility.
Previously, Lagarde had used very cautious tones on the negotiation: “We are working on a solution for Greece – she said in an interview with German television Ard – and I would not say that we have achieved substantial results. Things are moving, but there's still a lot of work to do."
Martin Jaeger, spokesman for the German finance minister, took the same line Wolfgang Schaeuble, according to which "unfortunately it must be noted that so far there are no proposals and an overall solution" from the Greek government.
In any case, so far the only certainty is that the May 31 deadline will not be respected, the deadline set by an ultimatum from Hollande and Merkel.
