EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker complained Friday about a lack of progress in talks on Greece's bailout, but insisted there was no chance of a failure that could drive the country out of the eurozone.
"I am not satisfied by the developments in the recent weeks. I don't think we have made sufficient progress, but we will try to push in the direction of a succesful conclusion of the issues we have to deal with," he said ahead of talks with Greek premier Alexis Tsipras.
"I am totally excluding a failure, I don't want a failure. I would like Europeans to go together. This is not the time for division, this is the time for coming together," he added.
Tsipras, the leader of the hard-left Syriza party who came to power in January, is visiting Brussels and Paris in the latest bid to drum up short term cash for Greece to meet huge debt repayments in coming weeks.
Greece won a four-month extension of its international bailout in February -- despite Tsipras initially saying he wanted a completely new arrangement -- but it will not get any of the cash until new reforms are approved by its eurozone partners.
"Our intention is to implement this (eurozone) decision of the twentieth of February in a constructive way," the Greek prime minister said after meeting European Parliament president Martin Schulz.
But with Greece likely to seek a third bailout since 2010 later this year, Tsipras stressed the need for a longer-term solution.
"I want to be sincere to you that I have spent 90 percent of my time in order to discuss about the short term deliberations with our partners in order to find a compromise," he said.
"But I think now it's time to think about the future."
Source: AFP