For ministers of the 19-member currency union, it will be their third attempt in 10 days to resolve a standoff that has sent jitters across the continent at the prospect of a messy Greek exit from the single currency.
But the outcome of the meeting, which is due to start at 3pm (2pm GMT) onFriday, is clouded in uncertainty after Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, rejected a Greek compromise proposal.
Hopes of a deal have since risen, however, as it was reported that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was taking a more conciliatory stance. Greece’s €240bn bailout – orchestrated by the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – expires next Friday. Without an imminent deal the country faces the real prospect of running out of cash in early March because it is effectively locked out of the international lending markets.
In an effort to break the deadlock - which is centred on the Syriza-led government’s determination to relax austerity measures attached to the current bailout programme – Merkel discussed the crisis for almost an hour on Thursday evening with Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras.
Officials in Athens described the talks, which were interpreted by official translators and not conducted in English, as “constructive”, saying both had conveyed the desire to find a solution.
Merkel, they added, had assumed a more conciliatory stance than Schäuble. The German chancellor has repeatedly said she wants Greece to remain in the single currency.
This morning, Germany’s EU commissioner Güenther Oettinger said Greece and its creditors should be able to reach a deal but may need another meeting of eurozone leaders next week.
“We are working so that Greece stays in the eurozone,” Oettinger told German radio Deutschlandfunk. “On this basis I think an agreement will still be possible in the next eight days - if necessary via a further meeting of government leaders,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Tsipras spoke with the French and Italian leaders. The French president, François Hollande, was also quoted in the Greek media as saying he was willing to support Athens.
A Greek government spokesman said that conditions for a deal had “matured at last”, but maintained that Athens would not be pushed into extending its bailout programme.
“The Greek government has done all it should at every level in an effort to find a mutually beneficial solution,” government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis told a Greek TV station.
“We are not discussing the continuation of the (bailout) programme,” Sakellaridis said. “The Greek government will maintain this stance today, although conditions have matured for a solution to be found at last.”
In Brussels, home of the last-minute, patched-together deal, there are expectations a compromise can be found. “Probably the Greeks will move but there is going to be more negotiation needed to find an agreement,” said one source.
Officials were meeting late Thursday night in an attempt to find common ground, after Greece made a formal request for an extension of its loans.
The Greek government, which is under fire from radical ultra-leftists for making the loan application, described the latest proposal as a way to deal with the country’s “humanitarian crisis” and kickstart the economy. But the request was widely viewed as a climbdown.
In a letter to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the eurozone finance ministers’ group, obtained by Reuters, Greece’s finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, conceded that the Greek authorities would “refrain from unilateral action that would undermine the fiscal targets, economic recovery and financial stability”.
Crucially, he said Greece would remain under the supervision of the European commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – the unpopular troika that the Syriza-led government had insisted it would throw off.
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