A picture can say a thousand words, it is said.

And the picture of the new Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos sitting on his own (above) while in another photo (below) other Finance Ministers, including Malta's Edward Scicluna at teh centre, chat with dour German Finance Minister Schauble before the start of a crucial meeting aimed to lay down short and long-term placs for Greece speak volumes on how Europe is viewing Greece at this moment of history.

And, to make matters worse, news is filtering that Greece went to Brussels unprepared.

According to reports, the newly-appointed Greek Finance Minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, has turned up for the eurogroup meeting empty handed. He is now expected to present the proposals to the eurogroup tomorrow.

This development could turn this evening’s EU leaders emergency summit into a waste of time. The summit is supposed to discuss the Greek situation after Sunday’s referendum, in which Greeks overwhelmingly voted against accepting the latest draft bailout deal in a referendum.  Greece owes the eurogroup, the IMF and the European Commission around €300 billion it was lent as emergency aid packages in 2010 and 2012.

In return, the country was forced to introduce round after round of austerity measures to reduce public spending and be able to pay the loans back. However, Greece refuses to accept more austerity measures and was today expected to ask for a 30% haircut on its loans.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said a debt haircut is now allowed for bailout. He said the Greeks government had successfully fought for and achieved a broad majority against the new program but without a program there is no margin for help to Greece within the Eurozone.

Speaking to journalists at the end of the eurogroup meeting, Edward Scicluna said the Greeks had made one step forward and one step back. “The step forward was the fact that the Greek finance minister spoke clearly and showed that he is very much in favour of reforms. His language was positive, what we have always yearned to hear from the Greeks,” Prof. Scicluna said, in an indication that Mr Tsakalotos is maybe more suited to the task at hand than his predecessor, Yanis Varoufakis, who resigned yesterday.

“However, the fact that he came empty handed was a step back.  The discussion was useful in the sense that we showed that there can be no way forward without trust.”  Professor Scicluna said that, before discussing financial bridges, Eurozone ministers first had to build a bridge of trust. “In order to do that we need to have firm ground on the other side. This firm ground is the medium term program. The Greek proposal has to be formulated in such a way as to include a medium term program.”  The measures of the past are not forgotten but that is a closed chapter, Prof. Scicluna said. “Now we are speaking about a new program that requires financing from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).”

Had the new minister been appointed earlier “we might have gone places,” Prof. Scicluna said, “but he is coming late in the day where there is a complete loss of trust. I have my doubts if he has managed to patch that up. Definitely it was undone by the fact that it was the same old story of ‘not today, tomorrow.’ It was very frustrating to come here and not find what was promised.” Asked if there was a deadline for the Greek proposals, the Finance Minister said eurogroup ministers were promised the proposals by tomorrow. “I hope this is not a case of Tomorrow never comes.”

 

The Maltese Finance Minister said he underlined the need for the implementation of reforms in Greece. “If the Greek parliament, out of its own free will, implemented some of the reforms which it agrees with, that would be a positive step and would make up for the lack of trust. This should happen by next Monday. If it does not we will have a death by a thousand cuts.”