Reforms a first step as Greece looks to unlock EU funds

The situation between Greece and its international creditors remains precarious as another late-night meeting in Brussels ended without specific progress on the Greece funding crisis.

Instead Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to present a fresh list of reforms "within days", though leaders declined to commit to the disbursement of any new cash in the short-term.

The bigger picture is Greece faces the possibility of running out of cash within weeks unless a broader deal is struck.

The decision by European Council president Donald Tusk to grant Mr Tsipras his request to hold a 'mini-summit' at the fringe of the EU leaders' summit was a small political victory for the Greek prime minister who had been pushing EU leaders to move the Greek discussion to the level of political leaders.

The image of Mr Tsipras facing his seven EU counterparts - some would say adversaries - across the table in a room in the European Council building in Brussels is likely to play well in Athens.

It also perhaps represents a shifting of power over the programme negotiations from Greece's fiery finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to the prime minister, something some EU finance ministers may welcome as frustration grows over the lack of progress from the Greek end on reform measures.

Despite signing up to a temporary bailout extension on February 20th, tensions have continued between Athens and its creditors as Greece tries to unlock €7.2 billion of funds due to it under the current programme.

Officials reported a "constructive" engagement between Mr Tsipras and the senior EU figures, which included European Central Bank Mario Draghi, euro group president Jeroen Dijsselbloem and the heads of the European Council and Commission, during the three-hour meeting.

Concern was expressed from the EU side about the inflammatory language emanating from members of the government in Athens over the past few weeks before discussion turned to the financial position of Greece.

The exact financial status of Greece remains a key concern.

While Commission officials have reported difficulties in accessing specific information about the state of the public finances, the government faces a number of debt repayments including around €1.2 billion due to the IMF due this month, while it must also roll over about €1.6 billion in short-term government debt.

This is in addition to regular exchequer expenditure, such as public sector salaries and pensions. EU sources said last night that Mr Tsipras had assured Greece’s lenders that there was funding in place until early April.

The outflow of deposits from Greek banks continues, with Reuters reporting €400 million was withdrawn on Wednesday alone.

The ECB appears reluctant to change its stance on allowing the Greek banking system to purchase significantly more short-term government, a key request of Mr Tsipras as he explores ways to finance the country in the short-term.

The other main focus in the coming days and weeks will be on what specific reform measures Greece will present and whether these will satisfy creditors.

These details will continue to be thrashed out in the forum of the ongoing technical negotiations between officials from the Troika and Greece in Athens and Brussels, though leaders were careful to say in a statement last night that Greece would retain “ownership” of the reform measures.

While last night's summit can be seen as a conciliatory gesture, particularly by German chancellor Angela Merkel, to try and calm an increasingly fractious situation, pressure will now be on Mr Tsipras to come up with specific reform measures in the next few days, as Europe tries to forge a way through the latest Greek crisis.