Tuesday

5th Dec 2023

Brussels: ‘No comment' on Greek eurozone exit meeting

  • The commission is 'not aware' of any secret meeting in Luxembourg (Photo: ec.europa.eu)

The European Commission has said it its ‘not aware' of any secret emergency meeting in Luxembourg on Friday evening to discuss the exit of Greece from the eurozone, as German newsweekly Der Spiegel's online edition has reported.

"We are not aware of such a meeting," commission spokesman Mark Gray told EUobserver.

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"We have absolutely no idea of what this is about. I have no comment. I don't know where they are getting this from," added the head of the commission's spokesperson's service.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for eurogroup chief and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Guy Schuller told Reuters: "I totally deny that there is a meeting, these reports are totally wrong."

An EU diplomatic source told this website that the Greek finance minister is to issue a denial within the hour.

"There will be no meeting; the commission is to officially deny it. Athens is going to deny it," said the contact, who added a caveat: "There is no official confirmation for this yet."

The Dutch finance minister is in Rotterdam, not Luxembourg tonight, the country's foreign minister reported.

A diplomat from a core Eurozone country told this website: "The article completely surprises us. Pressed to say whether there is a meeting, the source said: "Not that we know of. Let's see if there is."

Other official denials have also started to come in. The French finance ministry has described the idea of Greece leaving the eurozone as a "total fantasy".

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