After the gathering of European leaders on Jan 30, EU President Herman Van Rompuy convened a smaller group, including Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and European Central Bank Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen, to weigh the next steps on Greece, Bloomberg reported.
Van Rompuy spoke of the need “to put the current program back on track” and said finance ministers will try to hammer out the follow-up plan – in the works since July – by the end of the week. Greece is counting on aid to meet a 14.5 billion- euro bond payment on March 20 to escape default.
Speaking to reporters at night, Papademos said “some difficulties” beset the debt-swap talks and hinted that donor governments may have to put up more money.
“The timeline is tight, but we are absolutely focused on the target of bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion by the end of the week,” Papademos said.
