Eurozone finance ministers gathered at an emergency session in Brussels on Monday under pressure to devise a stopgap plan to keep Greece solvent and save the cash-starved country from a possible exit from the euro ahead of a June 30 deadline
Two central players in the meeting, Greek deputy foreign minister and coordinator of the negotiating team for the talks between Greece and its international lenders Euclid Tsakalotos and the country's combative finance minister Yanis Varoufakis walked in 20 minutes late.
Euro Working Group (EWG) head Thomas Wieser has called Varoufakis several times on the phone as the Greek finance minister's whereabouts remained unknown.
Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, obviously irritated by the delay said in ironic tone: "We received the first version of the Greek proposal at 12:30, the second at 8:00, and the third at 10:00. I do not know if there would be a fourth one. "
During the past months much is being said about Syriza's lawmakers dress style. Known as a sartorial rebel Euclid Tsakalotos was almost denied entrance to the summit. Tsakalotos was not identified by the security personnel as he did now appear dressed in a suit and blue tie as the rest of the male eurozone ministers and had to show his accreditation to enter the meeting.
The emergency meeting in Brussels, the ministers’ second in five days, broke up after only two hours. Greece's creditors are now working towards an agreement at a scheduled summit of all EU leaders which begins on Thursday and concludes on Friday.