Varoufakis: Creditors Left EU Ministers ‘In the Dark’ on Greek Reforms Plan

Eurozone finance ministers were in the dark on Greek reforms proposal as they met Thursday to hammer out a cash-for-reforms deal with Greece, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said in an article published Saturday in the Irish Times.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A group of 19 EU finance ministers met with Varoufakis in Luxembourg earlier this week to negotiate debt relief terms with the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"The euro zone moves in a mysterious way," Varoufakis wrote on the heels of the talks. "Momentous decisions are rubber-stamped by finance ministers who remain in the dark on the details, while unelected officials of mighty institutions are locked into one-sided negotiations with a solitary government-in-distress."

The Greek finance chief said his presentation on Thursday of the Greek government’s reforms agenda had been met with "deafening silence."

The only remark came from Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan who protested that international money lenders had not made the ministers privy to their proposals to Athens when they were asked to participate in the meeting – nor was Greece allowed to share their written proposals with Eurozone finance chiefs, Varoufakis wrote.

An emergency EU summit was announced for Monday after the negotiators failed to reach a compromise.

Greece's overall debt stands at about $350 billion. It needs to agree on a package of economic changes to secure more than $8 billion in extra funds from creditors or face a default on its $1.8-billion IMF loan repayment due this month.