Eurogroup, to seal an agreement with Greece in sight – FORTUNE

BRUSSELS (AFP) – The 19 finance ministers of the Eurozone will meet again on Wednesday in Brussels for Greece and its creditors “achieved results”, said the president the European Council, Donald Tusk, at the end of an extraordinary summit of heads of state.

“The new Greek proposals are a positive step forward,” said Tusk, adding that there is still work ahead.

“The Eurogroup should it achieve results on Wednesday night”, on the eve of a summit of the 28-member bloc, he said.

Greece spent months looking for a deal with its creditors to release him for the last leg of its bailout in exchange for economic reforms. Athens needs the resources to pay 1,600 million euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 30 June.

If you can not agree, it would fall into default, which would potentially block out the common currency.

Meanwhile, Greek government source told reporters in Brussels that the government accepts the idea of ​​extending the current bailout program that runs until June 30 to avoid an default.

“We are talking about the essence of prolongation of the program,” the source said, without specifying how many months could extend the current plan of existing financial assistance since 2012.

“For the first time accepted the extension of the program as the only way forward,” he told reporters.

The same day, Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras presented new proposals to creditors which were received positively.

The government will preserve the path of wages and pensions, restore normalcy to the structural relations and combating tax evasion and corruption, said the prime minister.

After meeting the Government’s proposals of Tsipras, President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said he was convinced that an agreement on Greece’s debt this week

will be reached

Juncker said he was confident that the Eurogroup will achieve results on Wednesday to be presented the following day.

Meanwhile, IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, said it should be done a tremendous job in the next 48 hours.

With information from Reuters