-Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission's vice president
Greece will ask for a six-month extension of its European loan agreement on Thursday, Greek government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis confirmed. The country says an extension is the only option to prevent a possible default and disruptive Grexit. Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Finance Minister, expressed optimism that a deadlock with other Euro zone member states could be broken by the end of the week, saying he hoped Greece's proposal would be accepted. At the end of the day neither Athens nor Brussels has an interest in Greece leaving the Euro zone. Wolfgang Schaeuble, German Finance Minister, said that there may be some room for compromise on a dispute between Greece's and its creditors, as the Greek government demands to soften austerity measures attached to the bailout programme, while Eurogroup pressures the country to fulfil its debt obligations. Compromise, however, will not solve everything but it would win valuable time.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank agreed to provide extra 3.3 billion euros emergency funds to Greece's struggling banks, despite pressure from Germany that was unwilling to allow any extra funding, as part of efforts to convince Athens to agree to extend its international bailout. The ECB had already increased the amount available to Greek banks to about 65 billion euros last week. The deal will give Athens breathing space to negotiate a loan deal with Eurogroup.
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