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EC President Jean-Claude Juncker urges Greeks to vote 'yes' in referendum

EC President Jean-Claude Juncker urges Greeks to vote 'yes' in referendum

In a press conference on Monday (29/6), European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged Greeks to vote 'yes' in the upcoming referendum, while announcing that the European Commission has no new proposals to present at the moment.

He underlined that a 'no' in the referendum would mean that Greece "distances itself from Europe."

Juncker repeated that the institutions had been "once again determined" to prepare a deal on Friday when the process was abruptly broken off by the Greek government's decision to call a referendum and to camapaign in favour of a 'no' vote.

"To set one democracy against 18. This does not help any European citizen and no Greek citizen. The Greeks must, however, know clearly what is at stake next Sunday."

The Commission's president insisted that he had done everything possible to reach an agreement and that the institutions "had really moved mountains" in the effort to strike a deal that for the good of the Greek people, while at the same time creating the conditions for unanimous agreement from the other 18 countries.

He denied that the Greek side had been presented with ultimatums, saying the institutions approach was always to set up a fair agreement, and that the institutions had adapted their working methods to what the Greek government wanted, showing determination and persistence for the Greek proposals.