With information coming from“technical teams” that Greece might run out of liquidity by 8 April, Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, arrived today in Berlin where he will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel this afternoon.
In preparation of today's meeting, Greek foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias, met yesterday with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. No announcement was made after the meeting.
What did happen was that a letter sent by Tsipras to Merkel, on 15 March, was leaked to the press. In this letter, which was instrumental in arranging the 7 party meeting last Thursday in Brussels, Tsipras warned that the drying out of bailout funds to Greece combined with ECB's restrictions makes it impossible for Greece to service debt as well as it's other obligations.
"It ought to be clear that the ECB's special restrictions when combined with disbursement delays would make it impossible for any government to service its debt," Tsipras wrote.
According to Greek government spokesman, Gavriil Sakellaridis "it was a letter which said more or less what we have been saying since last week - that there is a liquidity problem and that what is needed is political initiatives."
Asked whether it was a threat to say Athens will choose paying wages and salaries over repaying debt, Sakellaridis said: "It's not a threat, it's reality."
The Tsipras – Merkel meeting will start at 5 pm. Around 7 pm there will be a press conference and afterwards the two leaders will discuss in a less formal way over dinner.
While both governments tried to tone down their differences, the German government has also tried to warn that there is no breakthrough expected today. It also tried to reassure EU Member States that worry about important issues for the Eurozone being discussed only with the German Government.
According to the german government spokesman, Angekla Merkel has repeatedly said that nobody should expect a solution from today's meeting.
He also stressed that the Greek reform list will be given to the Eurogroup and not to individual governments and that the Tsipras – Merkel meeting can't replace a solution within the Eurogroup.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/merkel-tsipras-try-tone-down-differences-berlin