“Brussels decides, not Berlin” was the laconic response by a high-ranking Greek government official on Thursday to Berlin’s “nein” of a same-day request by Athens for a six-month extension of the country’s loan agreement.

The statement, if taken at face value, means the government in Athens expects to continue negotiations ahead of Friday’s eurogroup meeting that lead to a compromise with its partners and creditors.

Back in Brussels, 19 euro area experts were studying Greece’s request, tabled hours earlier by Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis. The experts – one from each euro area member — met within the framework of a Euroworking Group in Brussels.

The Athens Stock Exchange ended Thursday up by 0.2%. Meanwhile, an index of Greek debt known as the Bloomberg Greece Sovereign Bond Index also showed steady confidence Greece will remain in the eurozone — if compared with low points over the past few years.

According to protothema.gr sources, Athens expects to stike a deal at Friday Eurogroup, which by “extension” means an agreement that has Berlin’s blessing.

Beyond the negative reaction by the German finance ministry (see below)

a later statement by Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the Social Democrat junior party in the German coalition government, considerably improved the prospects for Friday’s meeting.

“I would advise that we don’t rush to say yes or no, but that we engage in talks,” Gabriel told reporters outside Berlin. “Certainly not everything is possible, but I’m very happy that we’ve come this far.”