On the migration and refugee crisis G20 leaders agreed on the need for global efforts to address the effects, protection needs and root causes of the crisis. They called for strengthening humanitarian assistance and refugee resettlement. At the press conference before the summit President Tusk stated that “In light of an unprecedented number of 65 million displaced people all over the world, the G20 community needs to scale up its share of responsibility. Only global efforts supporting refugees and their host communities will be able to bear fruit.”

On the fight against terrorism, leaders reaffirmed their solidarity and resolve and their commitment to tackle terrorist financing.

The summit also highlighted the importance of joining the Paris Agreement on climate change as soon as possible. Before the summit President Tusk recalled that “The G20 has an important role to play in this global struggle. With major emitters around the table we need to make sure that our common priority is to implement the Paris agreement early and in a robust manner. The EU is fully committed to this goal and we want to encourage all G20 members to do the same. ”

In the margins of the summit, Presidents Tusk and Juncker met with Recep Erdoğan, President of Turkey, to discuss EU-Turkey relations and continued cooperation on migration.

Photo: EU Newsroom / From left to right: Mr Jean-Claude JUNCKER, President of the European Commission; Mr Donald TUSK, President of the European Council; Mr Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN, Turkish President.

According to ANA, in joint statements made after their meeting at the Maximos Mansion, Samaras said that he briefed Juncker on privatisations, structural reforms and the EUR 11.7 billion cutback plan, as well as the government’s efforts to tackle tax evasion and illegal immigration. Samaras repeated the government’s determination to reach its targets. He added that “very soon all those who speculate in favour of a Greek exit from the Eurozone will be proven wrong”.

Eurogroup head stressed he’s “coming as a friend”, something which “has been proven on multiple occasions”. Juncker said Greek citizens have made huge efforts, something which other Eurozone members do not always realise.

A decision on whether to grant the government additional time to meet its targets will be based on the troika’s report, Juncker said. “I have to underline this will depend on the findings of the troika mission and we have to discuss the length of the period and other dimensions,” he said.

Warning it is the country’s “last chance” to avoid bankruptcy, Juncker urged the government to push through austerity cuts and said a credible strategy to close the fiscal gap is a pre-requisite for disbursing the next aid tranche. “The ball is in the Greek court – in fact this is the last chance and Greek citizens have to know this,” he said.

According to protothema.gr, the meeting was attended by Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and deputy minister Christos Staikouras. They discussed all the developments in Greece and the Eurozone, the necessary steps to be taken to tackle the debt crisis, and the geostrategic conditions for stability, given the turbulent situation in Syria.

According to Reuters, markets have enjoyed a strong run over the last few weeks on hopes that the new urgency in Europe to overcome its debt crisis may allow Greece to remain in euro and keep the bloc from unraveling. Rating firm Moody’s released a report saying that repair programs in troubled southern eurozone countries were having a significant benefit although overcoming the problems could take several more years.

Kathimerini writes Samaras is hoping that Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker will give Greece and its continued euro membership his strong backing following talks in Athens between the two men this afternoon, when the Premier will set out the measures Greek government plans to take. Sources said Samaras is hoping that unequivocal support from Juncker will set a positive tone for the week.

Jean Claude Juncker, who will also have dinner with Samaras at the Acropolis Museum, declined a request from opposition party SYRIZA to meet with its leader, Alexis Tsipras. The leftists had sent a request to the Luxembourg Embassy in Athens last week but were told Juncker would not have time for the meeting. Party sources blamed the government and the troika for the talks not being held. Tsipras had turned down an invitation to meet with troika representatives in July.

Hollande and Merkel need the latest report on Greece’s economic situation and a precise aid request before deciding how to help the country, France’s European affairs minister said according to Bloomberg. “There’s a process we’re engaged in to evaluate the efforts made by Greece in recent months, which we know was set back by elections,” European Affairs Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said yesterday in an interview with Europe 1 radio. “We’ll evaluate the situation and try to take a common position.”

Citing news agencies, capital.gr writes that Germany will not substantially soften its agreements with Greece, its foreign minister Guido Westerwelle said yesterday, after meeting with his Greek counterpart Dimitris Avramopoulos. According to Kathimerini Westerwelle said Greece needs to carry out the reforms that have already been agreed upon, but that “the German government wants us to remain together in the eurozone.” He pledged Germany’s help in implementing the reforms, but said “the key to success lies in Athens.”

According to protothema.gr, the government is still seeking around EUR 700 million to EUR 1 billion. All unresolved issues were on the table in the meeting yesterday evening between Antonis Samaras and Finance minister Yannis Stournaras. In statements after the meeting, Stournaras said “we are talking about a new type of labour reserve [in the public sector]“, and that the full package of measures will be ready early in September, before the Troika’s arrival in Athens. He added that the meeting with Samaras was of an informative nature; at this time “they are costing the measures” and this is an ongoing process.

“Mr. Avramopoulos’ recent journey to Berlin and the forthcoming trip of Mr. Samaras are meaningless” SYRIZA MP Rena Dourou said in an interview with NET radio, “since in their luggage they bear no other approach than full obedience to Merkel.” SYRIZA MP said the Prime Minister forgot to renegotiate and now the new national goal is to extend the programme.

Dourou also argued that “lengthening the adjustment period while keeping the disastrous recipe of internal devaluation, is nothing more than as to give us a longer rope to hang ourselves.”

Referring to the aim of the meeting he said they wanted “to see how we can work more effectively together to enable Greece to make the most of its cohesion funding at this critical time” and also to see how we can with this reinforced monitoring and reinforced technical assistance do more to create hope for Greece. “We want to seize this moment to help get the Greek economy moving again,” Barroso stressed.

He added: “The second programme has a very strong focus on reforms that we believe will transform the capacity of the Greek economy to generate growth and jobs. It is important that this is recognized, so that the second programme does not, like the first, suffer from misperceptions as being all about fiscal consolidation. Of course fiscal consolidation is indispensable but this is not just a programme of fiscal consolidation, it is a programme for structural reforms, competitiveness and growth in Greece.”

Barroso said that there are over EUR 20 billion in structural funding available to Greece for the 2007-2013 period. “We have already released more than EUR 8 billion in payments but there is scope for doing much more before 2013. And we are already giving the priority to the payments to Greece. This means also that we need to get essential growth-enhancing projects off the ground. We have identified a number of these, which could give a particular boost to investment and employment,” he said.

Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker told the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee yesterday, a European Commissioner should be nominated to help return Greece to growth, according to an official announcement. He also observed that there was scope for cuts in the country’s military spending.

Speaking at one of his regular meetings with the committee, Juncker fielded MEPs’ concerns about the need for growth to emerge from the fiscal crisis, the next steps in solving Greece’s problems and boosting the firepower of the bailout funds. Juncker said he had hoped this would have been the week when a decision was taken to boost the European Stability Mechanism’s capital, but the idea “needed to mature further in some countries”.

On Greece, he said the Eurogroup would be keenly awaiting the participation rate of private Greek bondholders, which “would need to reach 66% for the collective action clauses to be activated”. He also stressed that the Greek government needed to act on the commitments it had given to ensure that the second bailout programme could become effective, and at the same time insisted that “it was time to stop humiliating Greece“.