Deal time? Tsipras, Juncker set to speak again on Thurs. evening

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is again expected to speak by phone on Thursday evening (local time) with EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, the second time in 24 hours the two leaders will speak. The development comes in light of perceived progress — according to media reports and assorted ‘sources’ – in talks between Athens and its institutional creditors.

Meanwhile Deputy PM Yiannis Dragasakis also headed to the Maximos Mansion government house after 8 p.m. (18.00 GMT), as reports of intensive talks within the “Brussels Group” framework were reported. Key dates remain the May 11 Eurogroup meeting and a 750-mln-euro payment to the IMF on May 12.

Earlier in the day from Brussels, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis emphasised that Grexit is a forbidden thought in our minds,” speaking before an audience at the European Parliament.

In a bid to nurture what appears to be the leftist SYRIZA government’s best “ace in the hole”, he dismissed the notion that Greece’s departure from the Euro area could be contained by the rest of the members.

“Once there is this mindset that now we don’t have an indivisible common currency … this is a very corrosive idea which will eventually bring the whole project down … And therefore the thought of Grexit is profoundly anti-European.”

The WSJ later reported that Varoufakis said that “I trust an agreement will be in the offing in the next few days, or weeks,” Varoufakis said Thursday, speaking at a business conference in Brussels.

In a question and answer session, he dismissed the notion that Greece has taken advantage of bailout money from poorer Eurozone countries, saying most of the money went to European banks who held Greek debt. 

The money didn’t go to us, he says, but to eurozone banks who held Greek debt.

He also called for the creation of a “bad bank to unclog the countrys’ banking system and a development bank linked to privatizations of state assets, and even suggested the creatino of a “debt break” to prevent future excessive borrowing (by … Greek politicians?!).

He attended a debate at the EU Parliament with EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici at his side.