Schinas: Athens must send credible proposals for deal to be possible

He said the first, submitting a request for financial assistance to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) was carried out promptly by the Greek side on Wednesday. The second stage was the ESM's referral of this request to the European Commission, with instructions to assess whether the three elements required for an ESM loan are satisfied - namely whether the crisis constitutes a danger for the eurozone's stability, Greece's financing needs and the sustainability of Greece's debt.

Schinas said the report by three institutions involved must be ready for the Eurogroup on Saturday.

The third stage will be for Athens to send credible proposals for reforms within the day so that they can be assessed by the institutions before the Eurogroup meeting.

Asked whether Athens will receive technical assistance from Commission experts in order to draft its proposals, he stressed that "ownership" of the measures will be exclusively Greek but the Commission's staff will be available to answer questions.

Regarding debt relief, Schinas repeated the position expressed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that an agreement on reforms took precedence and that discussion on the debt might begin in October.

Community sources, however, noted that an agreement will depend on the stance of the more "austerian" member-states in the Eurogroup, who again appear divided, not just on the quality of the Greek proposals. The disagreements are centred on the issue of the debt, with the IMF insisting that this must be settled, and on collective labour bargaining - an issue that the IMF has also raised insistently but is opposed by both the EU and Europeans.