European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European People’s Party that a deal with Greece was “so close”, with the two sides haggling over 60 million euros, when the negotiations broke off and the referendum was called. According to an article published on Politico, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras did not want to come to an agreement with Greece’s creditors due to ideological reasons.
“[Juncker] said we were ready to front-load EU funds at the disposal of Greece for the future and the Greek government didn’t take the offer, which convinced them that [the Greeks] weren’t interested in an agreement and it was ideological” noted an MEP who was present at the meeting with Mr. Juncker, adding that he said, ‘We were so close, in fact, we were so close that it was just 60 million euros that we were arguing over”.
Furthermore, Mr. Juncker stressed that a ‘no’ vote at the referendum on Sunday would mean that Greece will “leave the euro” and that he has devised plans for Monday, depending on how the Greek people vote. The European Commission President did not elaborate on these plans. Mr. Juncker’s office has refused to comment on the Politico article, however the EC chief told reports that the Greek side lacked “the will to close” a deal.
