by Dan Alexe After more than six hours of haggling, the 19 finance ministers of the Eurozone couldn’t arrive at a common position concerning the Greek main demand of a “haircut”, that is: reducing Greece's debt burden. In a short press conference after midnight, the president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem let it be understood that an extension of the present program for Greece would eventually be possible, but that for the time being “not enough progress has been done to arrive at common conclusions”. Everything was postponed until the regular Eurogroup next Monday, but is was clear from Dijsselbloem’s tone, as well as from the tired demeanour of the Commissioner in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici, that the discussions had been very tense. Dijsselbloem warned that time was short since the bailout programme expires at the end of this month with no solution in sight so far. "If a debt can no longer be paid off then that leads to a haircut,” had said Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, in an interview for the German magazine Stern released on Wednesday. "What is critical is that Greece's debt cannot be paid off in the near future." German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has also said that if Greece is not willing to request an extension of its 240 billion euro bailout - the biggest in financial history - "then that's it", ruling out further assistance or debt forgiveness. Varoufakis had a prior meeting with International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, which both said was constructive. Lagarde flew to Brussels to join the Eurogroup meeting in a sign of the importance the IMF attaches to the Greek crisis. Asked whether a so-called "Grexit" was on the cards, Varoufakis told reporters on arrival: "Absolutely not." European Union leaders will take up the issue at their first summit with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday. EU officials said they would be briefed on the talks but there would be no room for debt negotiation at a summit mostly devoted to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, fighting terrorism and longer-term reform of the euro zone's governance. Greece's radical left government wants a lightening in its bailout debt as well as an easing in required budget austerity measures. Eurozone nations have said Greece should not count on any forgiveness of its debts, although several countries have hinted that changes — such as to repayment schedule — might be considered. Greek officials have made it clear that they have some "red lines", namely a refusal to run large primary budget surpluses (the balance before interest payments on debt) and that the debt must be restructured. The Greek approach to date has been to talk about negotiations but make strident and sometimes threatening demands, rationalized by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' anti-austerity sweep in popular elections.
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