The Greek side is ready to submit counter-proposals in order to bridge the remaining differences with the institutions, exactly as agreed during the prime minister’s meetings in Brussels with French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Greek government sources said on Friday. Representatives of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be in Brussels on Saturday morning, in order to meet with the heads of the institutions, the sources added. They also underlined the Greek government‘s evaluation that an agreement was closer than ever, given that the differences between the two sides on primary surplus targets was just 0.25% of GDP. “What is therefore needed now is the political will for mutual understanding,” the sources said, saying it was hard to imagine that Europe’s political leadership will lead Europe to a division over such a small difference and over an insistence to not implement in Greece the same legal framework for collective labor bargaining as that existing in the rest of Europe. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a phone conversation with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, government circles said on Friday, adding that the two officials discussed the next steps in the ongoing negotiations. (source: ana-mpa)