Eurozone officials have called off an emergency meeting of finance ministers to approve a vital €130bn bail-out for Athens amid a growing fight about the merits of allowing Greece to go bankrupt.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chairs the eurogroup, said the delay in tonight’s scheduled meeting had been prompted by the continued failure of Greece’s political leaders to commit to the bail-out’s tough terms after April elections.
But senior European officials said that yesterday’s meeting of the “euro working group” – senior officials from eurozone finance ministries – was also coloured by a widening split over whether Athens should be trusted with a second bail-out.