EPP Chairman Manfred Webber believes the Greek measures proposed before yesterday's Summit are positive, however are not enough, and stresses the need to work intensively throughout the rest of the week.

Yesterday, a Summit of the Euro Heads of State took place in order to discuss last minute proposals by the Greek government. These proposals were welcomed however no decision was taken as to whether bailout funds would be released and the IMF, European Central Bank and the European Commission still need to go through the proposals.

Mr Webber explained that the European partners are “fed up” with the behaviour of the Greek Authorities. “We have lost so much time over the past weeks and months on technicalities and the Greek authorities were not ready to negotiate. From their behaviour, a lot of colleagues are very angry”.

“Greece needs money for the budget and creditors, and Europe wants to help. The partners want to give money to Greece, however we need a credible partner who is ready to undertake the necessary reforms in order to modernise Greece and turn it into a competitive state”.

“The Greek authorities already took a lot of these steps by, for example, seeing a surplus in the budget, a stable growth and a reduction in unemployment until January. After Alexis Tsipras came into office we saw a total disaster for Greece. We have a risk of a bank-run, the budget is out of any possibility of stabilizing and the country is back in recession. This is the outcome of 5 months of Communists in office in Greece, and hopefully they are clever enough to realise that they must turn around and return to responsible behaviour”.

"The EPP is asking for a reform programme for Greece. we are calling for Greece to, first of all become a normal democratic and competitive country", he explained.

The Eurogroup Finance Ministers are set to meet tomorrow to discuss the proposals again, hopefully with the IMF, ECB and EC reports in hand. Prime Ministers are then expected to further discuss the issue on Thursday, just before the beginning of the Summit, or perhaps taking some time during the Summit.