Eurogroup 'still working' on Greek bailout: Dijsselbloem

BRUSSELS

Work is still underway in order to ensure that a third bailout deal for Greece is finalized, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Dijsselbloem said: "We are still continuing to work, so the euro working group will look at it today, and we will probably hold a conference call either today or tomorrow."

"We are looking at all the instruments and funds [that] we could use... all of them seem to have disadvantages, obstacles and legal objections...we’re still working on it," Dijsselbloem said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is on Tuesday working to push the economic reforms imposed by the bailout agreement through the Greek parliament. 

Left-wing ministers have already vowed to lead a 'no' vote against the proposals. 

Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said on the ministry's website that Monday’s deal was “unacceptable and unworthy of being credited to a radical party, like SYRIZA, and a fighting government, which pledged to abolish the memorandums and austerity.” 

Tsipras’ governing SYRIZA coalition partners, the Independent Greeks party, has already promised to block some of the new proposals.

Panos Kammenos, Independent Greeks’ (ANEL) leader and defense minister, stated on Tuesday that "what happened in Europe was a coup d'etat."

“The Greek Prime Minister was blackmailed to agree on a text totally different to what agreed at the political leaders’ meeting," Kammenos told the media after an ANEL parliamentary group meeting in Athens.

However, Kammenos said that his small party would continue to back reform proposals agreed earlier: "Independent Greeks supports the government. We will vote in parliament [for] the measures agreed at the political leaders' meeting," he clarified.

SYRIZA is also coming under pressure from the left, with the country’s Communist Party – represented in parliament – saying Tuesday: “What we are experiencing these days is the result of an impasse policy which followed all the previous governments and the current SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government.”

Tsipras will propose a vote in parliament on several of the measures on Tuesday afternoon.

An anticipated reshuffle of government ministers is expected to be postponed until tomorrow, Wednesday.