French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Saturday that a cash-for-reform proposal was negotiable for Greece. “No one ever said – neither the institutions (EC, ECB and IMF) nor the eurozone countries that (the proposal) was a take-it-or-leave-it deal, that it was an ultimatum,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the ruling Socialist Party meeting.

He suggested that Greek arguments have a degree of legitimacy. “They should make different proposals to achieve the same overall economic balance,” he said. His conciliatory comments contrasted with angry statements from other EU officials warning Greece that the EU has gone as far as it could to help Athens.