Greek government officials’ optimism over a deal with institutional creditors to unblock more than seven billion euros left over from the second bailout was not apparently shared on Wednesday throughout euro land.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who’s increasingly portrayed as the “bad cop” to Angela Merkel’s “good cop” in relation to the “Greek issue”, on Wednesday evening said negotiations haven’t progressed much.
The often glib German minister also expressed “surprise” over reports emanating from Athens over a pending agreement. The reports from Athens were almost universally attributed to “government sources”.
Schaeuble’s ‘cold shower’ comments were made to Germany’s ARD network.
“No one really knows; we keep hearing positive news out of Greece – and that’s positive, but essentially talks haven’t gone far.”
On his part, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis first told reporters that the two sides — leftist Greek government and the creditors — were still not at the point of drafting an agreement. Dombrovskis said the so-called Brussels Group of creditors’ representatives was beginning the process to draw up a staff-level agreement — something that “sources” in Athens alluded to hours earlier.
“We are working very intensively to ensure a staff-level agreement. We are still not there yet,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying. The same news agency quoted another euro zone official as calling the SYRIZA government remarks as Other officials in the euro zone, speaking to “nonsense”. On its part, Bloomberg said Greek negotiators had to take a bus to Brussels from Germany on Wednesday after their plane was diverted to Dusseldorf. The group’s members were set to meet with EC and IMF officials.
Bloomberg also has its own “unnamed Greek official”, who it says acknowledged that there are still disagreements with creditors, and that the IMF was a main obstacle to a deal — another position repeatedly cited by Athens. Finally, FT’s Peter Spiegel, who has emerged as one of the radical leftist SYRIZA government’s strictest media critics, Tweeted that there’s no deal yet. 
