Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Friday severely deflated hopes that Athens and institutional creditors will achieve a staff-level agreement by an April 7 Eurogroup meeting in Malta.
Dijsselbloem, speaking less than a month after his own Labour Party (PvdA) fared badly in the recent Dutch election, said that despite significant progress a conclusion to the second review of the Greek program is not possible by that date.
He was quoted by Bloomberg and during his comments to reporters in The Hague.
Nevertheless, he left open the prospect of holding an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting to finally conclude the now year-long delayed second review of the third Greek bailout.
April 7 was the latest "unofficial date" tossed around over the previous two months, after successive previous deadlines were cited and then missed.
