Lithuanian finance minister hopes EU summit may rouse Greece to action

“Monday’s meetings and an emergency Eurogroup’s meeting, which is being planned, as well as a meeting of the euro area’s leaders might provide some impetus and show to the Greek authorities that the situation is really grave because sometimes it looks like the Greek authorities do not fully understand the severity of the situation and the emerging risks to Greece, its economy, and not to the euro area,” Rimantas Šadžius told LRT Radio on Friday.

The problem was that Greece was not negotiating and was not proposing any solutions to problems, he said.

However, the minister continues to speak cautiously about the country’s exit from the euro area.

“I don’t want to talk about the feasibility of the exit scenario, although there are many risks relating thereto and many people do consider a number of various options. On the other hand, I don’t believe that all troubles can be brought to an end in just one day,” Šadžius said.

EU Council President Donald Tusk called an emergency summit of the leaders of the 19 euro area countries on Monday in Brussels as the finance ministers who met in Luxembourg on Thursday failed to break the five-month-old standoff between the anti-austerity government in Athens and its EU-IMF creditors, who have demanded tough reforms.