Greece's euro exit 'was never among the options,' Italian FinMin says
In a statement on Greece to the Italian Parliament on Wednesday, Italy's Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said that the Eurogroup's aim had always been to find an agreement for sustainable growth in the country.
"Greece's exit from the euro was never one of the options," he stressed, noting that this was repeated at both summit meetings last week.
He said that negotiations with Greece got off to a delayed start because of a dearth of workable proposals from the Greek side but that significant progress had been made afterward on several issues, especially in the last weeks.
Padoan also insisted that the lenders had shown flexibility, if one compared the initial documents with that of June 27, which he said was "theoretically" the object of the upcoming referendum in Greece.
"I say theoretically because, in the mean time, the agreements are developing," he added.
