He defended his decision to hold an anti-austerity referendum last Sunday that dismayed Europe, appealed for unity but also promised his blueprint for a deal would have substance.
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“We are all responsible for the crisis, and we are all responsible for solving it”, Tusk added.
Greece submitted a request for a new support program from the European Stability Mechanism Wednesday morning. So far, Greece has only produced an outline of the measures.
The Greek leader sounded rather upbeat after Tuesday’s meeting, and said that the discussion had taken place “in a positive climate”.
The ECB has been providing emergency liquidity to keep Greek banks from collapsing, and on Wednesday decided to leave the limit on its stop-gap credit facility to Greece unchanged at 89 billion euros (S$133 billion), a banking source said. A few called for compromise.
His comments were welcomed by UKIP leader and MEP Nigel Farage. Britain is not part of the euro.
Greece’s banks have been shut since its most recent global bailout programme expired last Tuesday while capital controls have been imposed, limiting withdrawals to 60 euros a day.
Members of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group show placards at their desks during Tsipras’s speech Wednesday.
Pensioners wait outside the main gate of the national bank of Greece to withdraw a maximum of 120 euros ($134) in central Athens, Thursday, July 9, 2015.
The experiment, he said had clearly failed. The danger in that has always been that other debtor nations such as Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland – who received 2011 bailouts – might follow, which could bring down the entire confederation.
Tsipras vowed to continue reforms but warned about the austerity-weariness of the public. It is very hard.
“This has exhausted the patience and resilience of the Greek people”, he said.
Europe’s finance ministers are set to discuss Greece’s request during a phone conference today, in order to lay the groundwork for another extraordinary summit of all 28 European leaders on Sunday.
“‘We are now waiting for precise proposals from the Greek prime minister, for a [program] that will allow Greece to return to prosperity”.
European Union leaders also are prepared to cast a vote on Sunday to distribute humanitarian aid to Greece if no deal can be reached and the country is pitched into instability. “Grexit would be a awful failure and we are fighting to avoid it”, Moscovici said.
Greece’s eurozone partners have said they want to help the country stay in the currency club while complaining about foot-dragging by the Greek government.
European officials are split on the issue, with lead eurozone lender Germany still reluctant.
Russia, he said, is interested in a “strong, functioning, economically growing European Union”.
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem will then ask the European Commission, European Central Bank and the global Monetary Fund to assess and analyse Greece’s financial needs and debt sustainability.
France, which has been Greece’s biggest eurozone ally, is pushing for a deal in which Athens accepts and passes the budgetary measures – with limited changes – that were in the plan that was rejected by Greek voters in their referendum.
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However, the spending cuts and tax increases demanded as a condition for the loans have smothered growth, sending the country into a six-year recession and pushing unemployment to 25 percent.
