Officials involved in crisis talks between Greece and international creditors say slow progress is being on a deal to save Greece from leaving the eurozone when its bailout expires in March.
Monday crunch talks in Brussels between euro area finance ministers are trying to reconcile the demands of Greece's new leftist government for a 6 month extension but with fewer austerity measures...
The Eurozone's biggest lender Germany has been the most vocally opposed to bending the rules, though countries like France and Italy have expressed support for so-called 'bridge financing' while all sides work out a longer-term plan.
Greece has more than 320 billion euros in debt, mostly in the form of bailout loans from the euro area and the International Monetary Fund.
A pledge to write down half the country's debt helped Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party win last month's elections in Greece, but have already had to water down their demands after stark opposition from eurozone countries.
Tsipras told a German magazine over the weekend that Monday's talks would be difficult, but that he was confident all sides would find an agreement.
That optimism was shared by John Milios, the chief economist of his leftist party Syriza, who spoke to our correspondent Sandra Gathmann ahead of the meeting.
IN: "John Milios..."
OUT: "....welfare state."
DUR: 5'30.
AUDIO: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0215JohnMilios.mp3
Monday crunch talks in Brussels between euro area finance ministers are trying to reconcile the demands of Greece's new leftist government for a 6 month extension but with fewer austerity measures...
The Eurozone's biggest lender Germany has been the most vocally opposed to bending the rules, though countries like France and Italy have expressed support for so-called 'bridge financing' while all sides work out a longer-term plan.
Greece has more than 320 billion euros in debt, mostly in the form of bailout loans from the euro area and the International Monetary Fund.
A pledge to write down half the country's debt helped Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party win last month's elections in Greece, but have already had to water down their demands after stark opposition from eurozone countries.
Tsipras told a German magazine over the weekend that Monday's talks would be difficult, but that he was confident all sides would find an agreement.
That optimism was shared by John Milios, the chief economist of his leftist party Syriza, who spoke to our correspondent Sandra Gathmann ahead of the meeting.
IN: "John Milios..."
OUT: "....welfare state."
DUR: 5'30.
AUDIO: http://www.fsnradionews.com/feeds/0215JohnMilios.mp3