The eurogroup, meeting in Bratislava, said that Greece’s Syriza government was stalling on 13 of 15 “milestones” it had agreed to previous year in order to qualify for loans to repay its creditors.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and other leaders in southern Europe called for action to boost flagging growth in the bloc on Friday, saying they needed a bigger say in Europe.
“Europe is a soft power, and it can forge a real identity”, added Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, referring to the alternative use of economic and cultural influence available to the bloc.
The Greek prime minister’s statement was followed by those of the other participants in the summit, starting with French President Francois Hollande, who also stressed the need for unity and cohesion and said that Mediterranean countries could contribute to the launch of a dialogue that was useful for Europe, contributing to its security and prosperity.
“Economic stagnation, social cohesion problems, the rise of Euroscepticism and isolationism, the strengthening of far-right populist phenomena, are issues that we can not bypass”.
The 27 European Union leaders – the entire bloc, except Britain – will gather September 16 to discuss the fallout from the British vote in June to quit the EU.
A showdown is expected in Bratislava, where the so-called Visegrad group – made up of Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland – has demanded a tougher stance on migration.
“Visegrad countries can not be allowed to dominate the debate on Europe’s future”, Tsipras said in an interview with French daily Le Monde on Friday.
“Summer is over, we really need to restart and pick up on the time lost and the Greek minister, our Greek colleague, was I think convinced there’s a joint interest for all of us to keep this on track”, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone’s top official said at a meeting of European finance ministers in the Slovak capital of Bratislava.
Spain’s acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was represented by the country’s State Secretary for the European Union Fernando Eguidazu, who said Rajoy had wanted but been unable to attend.
Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party, the largest in the European Parliament, was even more scathing.
“When socialist party leaders meet nothing terribly intelligent comes out of it most of the time”, he told reporters.
A day earlier, Tsipras had also hit out at Germany’s perceived domination of the EU.
“We must collectively agree if we are a European Union or a German Union”, he told Le Monde.
“Our aim is not to focus on the number of EU states, neither more Europe nor less Europe, but a better Europe that will inspire again the European citizens”, said Tsipras.
The motto of the meeting will be “economic growth instead of austerity”. In most cases that was Greece, whose eastern islands were overwhelmed past year by migrants packed into smugglers’ boats from Turkey.
“That will create an ever greater strain on (Greece’s) asylum system and reception capacity”.
Human Rights Watch called on Greece Friday to end the detention of migrant and refugee children, pointing to “cramped and filthy conditions”.
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“They have to do this until the end of September, so there is still time for Greece”, Schaeuble said.
