Leaders of France and Germany yesterday told Greece’s government the door for negotiations with creditors remained open but urged it to make credible proposals at a eurozone summit to reach a cash-for-reform deal and so avoid a eurozone exit.

“The door is open for discussion,” President Francois Hollande told reporters, standing next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel after talks at the Elysee Palace.

He said the two of them had taken note of the message sent earlier by Greek political parties expressing their desire for Greece to remain in the eurozone.

“It’s now up to the government of Alexis Tsipras to offer serious, credible proposals so that this will can be turned into a programme which gives a long-term perspective, because Greece needs a long-term perspective in the eurozone with stable rules, as the eurozone itself does.”

But he added: “I stress that there is not much time.”

Newly-appointed Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos ponders on the Greek questions during a handover ceremony in Athens, Greece, yesterday.Newly-appointed Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos ponders on the Greek questions during a handover ceremony in Athens, Greece, yesterday.

Merkel said the conditions for a discussion on a programme involving the European Union’s bailout fund were not yet in place and urged Greece to put proposals on the table this week.

“We say very clearly that the door for talks remains open and the meeting of eurozone leaders tomorrow [today] should be understood in this sense. But at the same time we say that the requirements for starting negotiations about a concrete ESM programme are not present at the moment,” she said.

Meanwhile Euclid Tsakalotos, the mild-tempered professor who was appointed as Greece’s new finance minister, is a clear change in style from his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis.

The 55-year-old Tsakalotos studied at prestigious private London school St Paul’s and at Oxford University, speaks Greek with a British accent and rarely appears in public, let alone wearing the torso-hugging T-shirts Varoufakis favours.

It’s now up to the government of Alexis Tsipras to offer serious, credible proposals

But if European officials expect Athens’ new finance chief, who has already been a key negotiator in drawn-out meetings between the Greek government and creditors, to take a softer approach in the substance of new talks, they can think again.

As the brainchild of Syriza’s economic thinking, Tsakalotos is likely to redouble efforts to put one of the most contentious issues in the five months of financial aid negotiations between Greece and its creditors – debt relief – back on the table.

In a news conference after being sworn in, Tsakalotos said he was anxious about the task before him. “I cannot hide from you that I am quite nervous. I am not taking on this job at the easiest point in Greek history,” he said.

But the minister, who sat beside his predecessor, said he was keen to restart talks with European partners, in order to act on a decision taken by Greeks in a Sunday referendum to reject previous terms offered by creditors in exchange for aid.

“We want to continue discussions, to take this mandate given to us by the Greek people [to strive] for something better...for all these people who have been suffering so much.”

Tsakalotos has been dubbed in leftist jargon a “Revolutionary Europeanist” – an economist who supports European Union integration, but not its capitalist principles.

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