Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras travels to Brussels today for a two-day summit of EU leaders, amid continuing tensions between Athens and its international lenders over financial support for Greece.
With the Ukraine crisis and Europe’s energy challenges topping the agenda of the two-day gathering, Mr Tsipras has been pressing EU leaders to discuss Greece as the Greek government struggles to find common ground with lenders over reform proposals.
Mr Tsipras will hold a five-way meeting on the margins of the summit this evening, with German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Francois Hollande, and the heads of the European Commission, European Council and European Central Bank.
On Wednesday Mr Tsipras lambasted EU lenders in the Greek Parliament, ahead of a vote on a controversial bill designed to ease Greece's "humanitarian crisis" through the introduction of a number of anti-poverty measures including food stamps.
The vote took place following the leaking of a European Commission document urging Greece to re-think the proposed legislation.
“We will not be frightened,” Mr Tsipras told the Parliament. “The Greek government is determined to stick to the February 20th agreement.
However, we demand the same from our partners. Let them stop unilateral actions, respecting the agreement they signed.”
Negotiations between the three creditor institutions - the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF - and the new Greek government began in earnest last week as Greece seeks to unlock some of the remaining €7.2 billion due to it under its bailout programme in return for reform measures.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is among the EU leaders attending the two-day summit, which will also discuss the political situation in Libya, a particular concern for southern European countries such as Italy.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he was concerned about the pace of progress on resolving the Greek crisis.
“I’m still worried. I’m not satisfied,” he said. “I’d like everyone to get a grip.”
EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici also underlined his commitment to keeping Greece within the euro area.
“The single currency has to be perpetual. As soon as one leaves the question is who’s next?” he said, though he added that there were “conditions.”
Ahead of the summit, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned that time is running out for Greece to stay in the euro zone.
Two days after warning that Greece had “destroyed all trust” with its EU partners, Dr Schäuble said he had not contributed to ratcheting up of tensions between Berlin and Athens.
Last week, the Greek embassy lodged a formal complaint with the foreign ministry in Berlin after Dr Schäuble reportedly criticised his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis as "stupidly naive".
The German finance minister dismissed ever saying such a thing, blaming a translation error.
“I don’t know of any impolite remarks from me about German politicians,” he said, “and I’m not responsible for knowledge of German in Greece.”
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras will visit Berlin for the first time since his election.
