Chivalry

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned on Monday that a deal with Greece to unlock vital cash and allow Athens to avert default was "not yet there", just hours before a crunch debt crisis summit.

"Progress was made over the past days but we are not yet there," Juncker said as he greeted Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at EU headquarters in Brussels.

Greece will not hike value added tax (VAT) for electricity, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Monday, as Greece looks to break the deadlock with its creditors over a cash-for-reforms deal.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker went public on Friday with his frustration for none other than Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, as the latter was in St. Petersburg brushing up on his BRICS credentials and talking energy deals with Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t understand Tsipras,” Juncker was quoted by the German weekly Der Spiegel as saying.

President Klaus Iohannis has received on Wednesday, at the Cotroceni Palace, his Portuguese counterpart, Anibal Cavaco Silva, who is on a state visit to Romania.

President Klaus Iohannis (R) and his wife Carmen flank Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and his wife Maria while the national anthems of Romania and Portugal are rendered

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann expressed solidarity with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before meeting the leader in Athens on Wednesday in a bid to end a standoff with international creditors over a rescue package.

Jean-Claude Juncker briefly abandoned his “sociable uncle” persona on Tuesday to thoroughly vilify the Tsipras government, saying the latter is misleading Greek voters by misrepresenting EU representatives’ positions in recent negotiations with cash-strapped Greece.

French President Francois Hollande warned on Monday that there was no time to waste in resolving talks between Greece and its creditors, saying negotiations should restart as quickly as possible to avoid a period of turbulence.

"We are arriving at a time that could be turbulent if we don't reach an agreement," Hollande told reporters on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show.

Greece needs to adopt structural reforms if it wants to get more bailout funds from creditors, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told Austrian newspaper Der Standard.

Greece is a cow slipping on ice that must be pushed to firm ground, says European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, employing a rustic metaphor for painful days of trying to save headstrong Athens from default and catastrophe.

Last week no less than 60 delegations descended on the European Union capital of Brussels for a Europe-Latin America summit.

Spain's King Felipe VI has issued a decree stripping his sister Princess Cristina of her title as Duchess of Palma, the palace announced June 11, as the royal sibling faces tax evasion charges in a scandal that has embarrassed the monarchy.