Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, gave a press conference on the Greek crisis now in Brussels.
Juncker begun his speech by reminding that Greece joined the European Union in 1981.
He said that he does not have to make new proposals as the European institutions have already moved mountains.
He said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by last Saurday's events and that he 'felt betrayed' by the decision of the Greek government to withdraw its delegation from the negotiation process.
Juncker praised Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem fro his hard work saying that all European institutions made everything they could, working day and night, to reach a deal before the Greeks unilaterally terminated talks by calling a referendum.
The Greek negotiating team left the table at the worst moment "we were ready to discuss debt measures" President Juncker said.
“We saw egotism, tactical games, populist games” he said, further adding that “playing one democracy against the other 18 is not worthy of the great Greek nation, and not fair on Greece’s citizens”.
“We took talks on a political level excluding technocrats as the Greeks wanted and we have been patient waiting for Greek proposals, which were often delayed, deliberately altered” he reiterated.
Other European countries have been down “very difficult paths” and took very difficult decisions, he said.
Yes, it was a demanding package, says Juncker - but also a fair one. The Commisiion's president said that the proposals submitted to the Greek government did not include pension cuts, “this was never, ever on the table, and it is wrong to claim that it was” Juncker said.
“The Greek government had the ability to substitute measures and the institutions also pushed for structural changes to tackle vested interests.”
“It took some times, hours, to persuade the Greek government to impose a less-favorable tax regime for ship owners, even though this is common sense”.
According to Juncker Greece suffers from a lack of competition which results high prices in electricity and commodities “prices are among the highest in Europe, we wanted to tackle that” he said.
Greece is a member of the European family and this family should remain united. I call Greek citizens to vote Yes sending a message to their government and to the rest of Europe he concluded.