Meeting of finance ministers in Brussels lasts just one hour as EU nations vent frustration at speed of Athens response to potential bankruptcy

Greece’s eurozone creditors have stepped up the pressure on Athens over reforms that might unleash billions more in bailout loans and save the country from bankruptcy over the next three months.



Finance ministers from the single currency area broke off a discussionabout Greece on Monday after little more than one hour in Brussels. The Greek finance minister, Yannis Varoufakis, was told to come up with what the creditors view as a realistic programme of economic and fiscal reforms.





Speaking after the talks, the chair of the eurozone finance ministers’ group displayed his frustration at the pace of the Greek government’s response since Athens secured a bailout extension last month. “We have spent the last two weeks discussing who will meet who, where and in what configuration,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister. “It’s been a complete waste of time.”

Officials from the three institutions behind the €240bn (£172bn) Greek bailout – the European commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank – will start technical talks over the Greek bailout proposals on Wednesday, Dijsselbloem said.

The Greek government, led by prime minister Alexis Tsipras, reached an agreement on extending the eurozone bailout by four months a fortnight ago, but it has to commit to a programme of reforms credible to its creditors by the end of April to access more than €7bn still available in loans. Ministers voiced impatience and irritation with Greece’s efforts to deliver a reform menu that would satisfy the lenders.

Varoufakis was uncharacteristically silent going into the meeting after delivering two separate lists of vague reforms over the past fortnight, including a proposal to employ students and tourists to snoop on tax dodgers and report them to the authorities. Afterwards, he said officials from the three institutions would be welcomed to Athens as part of the technical talks, despite earlier avowals from the leftwing Syriza government that it would no longer deal with the hated troika.

It was clear that key eurozone policymakers were less than impressed with the suggestions from Greece, which faces a financing gap in the coming months and has to repay or redeem billions of euros in debts.

Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, who has been feuding with Varoufakis for weeks, declared that the outcome of the fractious negotiations would be decided by the troika. He repeated the term several times, despite the new Greek government’s insistence that the troika is dead.

The term, as well as naming the bailout “the programme”, is anathema in Greece and to Tspiras, who argues that his leftwing government has recovered the country’s fiscal and budgetary sovereignty.

Schäuble and Dijsselbloem made a point on Monday of stressing the role of the troika. Several finance ministers couched their remarks carefully but were withering about the reform proposals so far tabled by the Greeks.

“Greece needs to face the naked truth,” said Peter Kazimir, the Slovak finance minister. “The longer they speculate, the worse for them.”

While Tsipras is keen to maintain that the troika is dead, Dijsselbloem signalled that the same officials, under whatever title, would need to travel to Athens to inspect the government books. Both sides agreed that “technical” talks on Greece’s finances would take place in Brussels on Wednesday.

Greece insisted that the meeting had been successful, as it showed the bailout extension agreed two weeks ago was holding. Athens added that its reforms has been “accepted politically” by the eurogroup and its creditors had shown a willingness to help resolve its financing problems.