Leading German media say no progress over negotiations yet

According to the Sunday (29/03) edition of Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), "the Greek government, according to FAS information from negotiation-affiliated sources, has not yet submitted a list with reform plans to Brussels," which were scheduled to be discussed on Saturday.

It confirmed that representatives of Athens and of the creditors (European Commission, European Central Bank and the IMF) met on Friday evening for an initial meeting, but they discussed procedural issues. The creditors' representatives "complained about the inadequate lack of preparation for negotiations," the article said adding that technical-level talks in Athens had been repeatedly cancelled.

It also added that negotiations continued on Saturday as of 13:00, and were expected to last all weekend-long. "The list of reforms will be drawn up jointly," the newspaper said, quoting creditor-affiliated sources and saying that a Eurogroup teleconference will take place on Wednesday.

If there is a list by then, the finance minister could meet after the (Catholic) Easter in an emergency meeting, but the Greek Parliament must agree on certain negotiated reforms, FAS said. "If the eurozone finance ministers [the Eurogroup] approve the list [of reforms] and confirm the successful completion of the current reform programme, then a last loan tranche of 7.2 billion euros can be released to Greece," it said.

The newspaper reported however that "creditor representatives were not given access to Greek ministries, despite the fact Prime Minister (Alexis) Tsipras had promised so to German Chancellor (Angela) Merkel on Monday," and quoted a participant on the creditors' side as saying "they were disappointing days."

In its Sunday edition, news magazine Der Spiegel said that despite assertions to the contrary, the reality is that tension is running high. "Three months after his electoral victory, Tsipras is facing off with 18 governments of the eurozone countries that want to pressure the leftist politician to forget a large part of his campaign promises; if he does not yield, what all hope against will happen - Greece will leave the eurozone, it will be bankrupt and long-term political chaos will follow, perhaps all of these together."

Der Spiegel said the dilemma Greece has to decide on is "reforms or bankruptcy," as set by the eurozone leaders, and said nothing will be left of the primary surplus that was expected to reach 3 percent of GDP. "Specialists assess that within the next few months there will be an additional fiscal gap of 10 to 20 billion, which must be dealt with with yet one more support package that could exceed 30 billion," the magazine said.

It also said that during his visit to Berlin Tsipras presented Merkel with a list of 18 reforms focusing on tax revenues and promised free access to ministries for technical teams, which Der Spiegel said might not be kept, based on current indications.

The magazine also said that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who up to now had expressed optimism over the case, has started saying that the EU should be prepared for the eventuality of a Greek exit from the eurozone.