Eurozone finance ministers’ first attempt to grapple with the bailout demands made by the new Greek government broke down in recriminations after the two sides failed even to agree a way to take negotiations forward after six hours of talks in Brussels.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the committee of his 18 colleagues, said that while he had hoped a blueprint for future talks could have been agreed at the session, no negotiations were scheduled ahead of a self-imposed deadline to reach agreement on a bailout extension by Monday.
“It was my ambition to agree on the steps on the next couple days so that we could spend them well,” said Mr Dijsselbloem. “Unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that so we’ll continue on Monday and move on from there.”