The German Finance Ministry clarified that Greece would have to implement the agreed reforms before any talks on a possible debt reduction could take place. Responding to statements made by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras during his Sunday speech at SYRIZA’s central committee, where the Greek PM said that the reforms would not go ahead without a deal on medium term debt relief so that Greece could be included in the ECB’s quantitative easing program, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble’s spokesperson underlined that Berlin wanted the implementation of the economic reforms on the pensions and the tax free threshold. Following the clear refusal by Berlin to budge on the matter, it remains to be seen whether this development will delay the return of Greece’s creditors to resume talks on the second review and if it will present a hindrance on a staff level agreement between the two sides.