Finance Minister Edward Scicluna enters the eurogroup meeting this afternoon with subdued hopes that a solution will be found on the Greek bailout deal.

The eurogroup meeting was postponed to 4.30pm from 3pm as the eurozone’s big countries held an emergency round of talks.

Speaking to Times of Malta at 4pm, Prof. Scicluna said the talks between the “main actors” could lead to developments but anticipated a protracted meeting of the eurogroup.

Asked whether he was hopeful a solution would be found tonight, Prof. Scicluna said: “I don’t think so... My feeling is that we could head towards a summit to take the matter to a higher political level.”

If agreement was not reached, Prof. Scicluna said it was unlikely the situation would come to a head tonight.

“Luckily there is another wall behind finance ministers; prime ministers and heads of State. And as long as there is this safety net I believe the Greeks may not want to give up just now,” he said.

Asked about his comment reported in Malta Today and Bloomberg that a German-backed bloc was ready to let Greece exit the euro, Prof. Scicluna clarified that there had been a mood change among the big players.

“I was giving a long-winded explanation on how the mood has changed since the start of the crisis when countries like Germany and the Netherlands realised there was a lot of collateral damage if Greece exited the euro. Nobody wants to see this scenario happening, but calculations are being made now, four years down the line.”

He said there was brinkmanship from all sides but the underlying issue remained the same. The eurogroup wants any money passed on to Greece to have conditions attached to it.

“New conditions may be negotiated but that cannot happen now but over a six month span. However, in the mean time Greece should accept existing commitments that were agreed in the past. A country’s commitments remain steadfast even if there is a change of government.”

Asked about his comments on the lack of knowledge the new Greek administration had on the workings of the eurogroup, Prof. Scicluna said he was referring to what the Wall Street Journal had said.

“The newspaper had said the style adopted by the Greek finance minister irritated his colleagues in the eurogroup and this made it difficult to build bridges. Unfortunately, we ended up in a situation of Greece against all.”

Prof. Scicluna said Malta was in favour of an agreement being reached as long as the money loaned to Greece would be protected.