08 July 2015

European Commission: Result of the Euro summit on Greece

President Juncker underlined that the Greek "no" has strongly weakened the Greek negotiating position and left no doubt that a solution will be found by Sunday, whatever it looks like. "I do not exclude any hypothesis", the Commission President said, and continued: "The Commission is prepared for everything: We have a "Grexit" scenario prepared in detail; we have a scenario as far as humanitarian aid is concerned, and a scenario on how to deal with the problem now, keeping Greece in the Euro area. (…) I am strongly in favour of keeping Greece in the Euro but I can't prevent a "Grexit" if the Greek government is not doing what we are expecting it to do and respect the dignity of the Greek people. Now the Greek government has to tell us where they are heading. The last moment will be Friday morning."

When asked about a possible renegotiation of Greek public debt President Juncker answered: "I was telling the Greek government (…) that we are ready to come back to the Greek debt issue in October after we have commitments for the next coming months. 

This is not an issue for now. I hope it will be an issue in October."

From his side, the President of the Euro Summit Donald Tusk confirmed that the Euro area authorities were ready to do all that is necessary to ensure the financial stability in the euro area.

Shortly after the Greek referendum and ahead of the Euro summit, President Juncker spoke in the European Parliament about the need to resume negotiations with Greece and prevent a "Grexit". In his speech, in which he thanked the outgoing Latvian presidency of the Council for its excellent work and high level of ambition, he made the following points on Greece:

“The ball is most definitely in the court of the Greek government” which now has to explain how it intends to move forward following the outcome of the referendum in Greece. Juncker stressed the readiness of the Commission to play a constructive role and help the process: “The European Commission for its part is ready to do everything to get to an agreement within an acceptable timeframe.”

With regards to his expectations ahead of tonight’s Euro Summit, President Juncker said “We will sit down tonight and will try to get things going without rhetorical side-effects so that we can get to an agreeable solution. (…) The Commission would like to know what the “no” vote means, because I am told it's not a "no" to Europe, and I am told it's not a “no” to the euro. It cannot be a “no” to the proposals by the institutions, because they were no longer on the table.”

Finally, President Juncker reiterated his strong determination to keep Greece firmly anchored in the Eurozone: “My aim is to prevent Grexit. I am against Grexit."

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© European Commission