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"Without further loans, Greece won't make it,
that's the reality," said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutchman who
heads the group of finance ministers of countries that use the
euro.
Dijsselbloem said in a television interview it may be of some
help that the Greeks have appointed a single contact person for
negotiations, with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis
apparently sidelined.
But he said there had been little progress in negotiations over
the past two months, and signaled he did not think a Greek
referendum on a deal with creditors would be a good idea.
Tsipras has said he may submit an eventual deal to the Greek
people for approval if its terms are contrary to the platform he
campaigned on.
"It would cost money, it would create great political
uncertainty, and I don’t think we have the time," Dijsselbloem
said. "And I don’t think the Greeks have the time for it.”
The Dutchman said it should not have come as a surprise to
Greece's government that the European Central Bank has not
relaxed limits on how much Greek government debt its banks may
use as collateral.
"The Greek government gambled that if it negotiated with us the
ECB would open its cashier windows, relax its rules,"
Dijsselbloem said.
But "there will be no easy access to the ECB's windows until
there's a solid agreement with the Eurogroup," he told RTL
Nieuws. "That's been made clear to them time and time again."
(Reporting By Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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