Eurozone summit on Greece may only be 'consultations': Berlin

[BERLIN] German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that a eurozone emergency summit on Greece's debt crisis later on Monday may only take the form of "consultations" if Athens' creditors haven't approved Greece's latest proposals.

Without a previous agreement between Greece and its three international lenders with whom it has been negotiating for months, "today's summit can only be a summit of consultations this evening", Ms Merkel said on the sidelines of a meeting of her party in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

"It is up to the three institutions to examine" new reform and budget proposals presented by the Greek government to European partners on Sunday, Ms Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said earlier.

He was referring to Greece's creditors - the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

He said their green light could pave the way to an accord by the eurozone finance ministers, and finally by the 19 national leaders from the euro area.

"It must happen in this order," Mr Seibert said.

"We must not act as though there were a new way of going about it," he added, noting that it would require "very concrete measures" to deal with Greece's debt burden beyond a political agreement to keep Athens in the eurozone.

AFP