Belgian prime minister Louis Michel squarelycriticisedDonaldTusk, the Council president, for his decisiontoorganisea mini-summit between Greece and the big EU members Germany and France on the sides of the spring summit in Brussels, excluding smaller members of the currency bloc.
Criticism by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and his Dutch and Luxembourg colleagues prompted summit chairman Donald Tusk to hold a separate meeting with the trio where he reassured them their views would be represented and that no decisions would be taken.
A spokesman for European Council president Tusk offered to convene a mini-summit of all 19euro zonemembers to discuss Greece's difficulties, but no leader supported the idea.
Tusk assured the Benelux leaders that he and other chiefs of EU institutions -- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chair ofeuro zonefinance ministers - would ensure the common interests of the creditors were represented.
"It's a bad method," Michel had told reporters as he arrived for the 28-nation summit, where Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will meet on the sidelines later in the day with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.
Michel said they were free to talk but should take no decisions affecting those not represented. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said: "I would like to have been there."
Not all smallereuro zonestates agreed. Alexander Stubb, prime minister of Finland, said hehad full confidence in the French and German leaders to represent the creditors' position.
For his part, the leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament GuyVerhofstadt, himself a former Belgian premier, called on EU member states to launch an enquiry into the finances of the EU that seem to receive funding from Russia.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/belgian-anger-summit