BERN: Greece inside the eurozone, one senior European Union politician was surprisingly absent from the endgame of the negotiations.
A self-proclaimed “friend” of Greece and a veteran of eurozone politics, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wasn’t among the small circle of leaders that agreed to the most contentious issues during the long summit night of July 12.
“Juncker was there all the time, but not in the small circle,” said one senior diplomat who took part in the extended eurozone leaders’ meeting. The so-called breakout sessions were held only between the leaders of Germany, France and Greece and presided over by European Council President Donald Tusk. Nearly 10 hours of the total 17 were spent in this format, noted EU affairs commentator Peter Ludlow in his summit analysis.
“It was certainly an odd meeting. Sixteen government leaders and the presidents of the commission, the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Eurogroup spent the best part of 10 hours with little or nothing to do,” Mr. Ludlow said. According to one senior official, Mr. Juncker disagreed with the way German Chancellor Angela Merkel used the threat of a “timeout” from the eurozone for Greece unless it accepted the creation of a foreign-controlled fund overseeing the privatization of EUR50 billion ($55 billion) worth of Greek assets.
