Greece: Yanis Varoufakis says eurozone talks have progressed

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on 24 April that talks with his eurozone peers had improved over the past few weeks.

"There was a clear indication that the process of negotiation has converged substantially over the past few weeks," Varoufakis said following a meeting of euro group finance ministers in Riga.

Varoufakis criticised some plans put forward, such as a foreclosures law demanded by creditors and cuts to secondary pensions.

"Issues that concern are for instance the demand of the part of some – if not all of the institutions – that pensions, especially secondary pensions be cut forthwith, a demand that the Greek government is steadfastly opposing on the ground that it is not consistent with the requirements for stabilising the Greek social economy in the short run or in the medium run," Varoufakis said.

Varoufakis also blamed the slow progress of negotiations on the "unrealistic" demands of his eurozone counterparts, especially with regards to budget surpluses.

"This government does not want to do what previous governments did, which is to sign on pledges regarding the primary surplus that were simply, from a macro-economic perspective, impossible to achieve. This is why these negotiations are dragging," Varoufakis told reporters.

The comments came after he had said in his blog that he had agreed to reforms demanded by international lenders in return for new funding before Athens runs out of money.

Eurozone finance ministers met in the Latvian capital to assess progress on a reform-for-cash package to ward off a Greek default.

The Greek government wants a broad political deal with other eurozone leaders, leaving officials to fill in the details. But partly due to a lack of trust, the eurozone, led by Germany, insists technicians must draft a detailed, comprehensive agreement and only then will governments sign off on it.