prime minister alexis tsipras has been warmly welcomed by jean-claude juncker in brussels.r us. it was a warm welcome, they were sort of arm in arm. >> it was a vigorous handshake but difficult talks between the to. we've heard mr. tsipras has come out of those, talked to jean-claude juncker, talked to the leader of the eu member states and head of european parliament. those just finished he got in his car and i saw him drive off. before he drove off what he said was he thought things were positive, they would be able to find a common mutual acceptable viable solution. one that he said respected the rules of the european union. we want to recorrect the framework, not smash the framework were his words. so some positive signs but no details. >> are we at all then beginning to see an outline of a deal given the two sides, particularly i'm thinking of greece -- germany, rather, on the other side seem to be so far apart? >> well there's room for overlap, you might say, but the key things might start to happen sort of from now on depending on what messages have been sent and rec

the european mission had jean-claude juncker has indicated an openness to dialogue, so tsipras can hopefor some concessions. >> maybe we will have to adapt a few policies. maybe we won't change all of them just because of an election result of some light and some don't -- that some light in some don't. >> and outright debt reduction for greece is out of the question for brussels, but tsipras said he is optimistic about finding a solution after meeting with the european element head. >> i know very well that the history of the european union is a history of disagreements, but at the end of the day, of compromises, of agreements. and we have a willingness to work in this direction. >> an eu summit next week might produce a deal on the debt issue. a compromise is needed fast. the current extension runs out at the end of february. >> let's play our correspondent. -- full in our correspondent. he is in brussels and he covered those talks for us today. what came out of those talks? >> both sides remain very tightlipped after these talks. all we know for the moment is that further talks will f

jean-claude juncker has a leveraged infrastructure plan.nizing maybe we need to do more on the girls side. you cannot tell greece there's no need for investment for growth. at the same time jean-claude juncker is insisting we have not done enough. the problem is german fiscal intransigence. guy: you just laid out the argument beautifully. on one side you have a greek belief that you do not want to spend for growth. on the other side you have a group that says you have to spend for growth. where's the middle ground if the investment growth is sputtering? mark: yesterday, merkel said there are no divisions among the european union members about how we are going to deal with this problem. within an hour the french budget minister says actually, greece has a good point there. the greek finance minister has said you can't interpret the ecb move today -- you can interpret the ecb move today as trying to push the eu towards the negotiating table. that is a good spin it would be nice to think it was trip. francine: one thing -- guy: at least get th

yes, the new greek prime minister alex tsipras met the president jean-claude juncker while yanis varoufakis talks with the central bank. they say negotiations have started with the imf. and the greek stock market has responded positively that the new greek government has backed off asking for debt to rewritten. varoufakis wants to exchange 300 billion euro debt for bonds, bonds repaid only if greece's economy grows. however, it does now seem that that greek charm offensive may be coming to a bit of a halt because the financial times is reporting today that the european central bank is resisting an attempt by greece to secure 10 billion euros of short-term funding. greece wants the money so that they can have basically more time, more time to breathe, more time to negotiate more favorable terms on their massive debts with the so-called troika the international lenders, the european commissioner, the imf and european central banks. after he meets with the big boss draghi he told us how it went. >> i had the opportunity to present to him our government's government's -- i'm waving the terminat

the table for a while coming from somewhere that he could have agreed to because i read that jean-claude junckerhing on the table. what was the deal he would have signed up to? >> it would have in the =--- been the juncker deal. if -- he objected and wanted slightly stronger language. there was a split between the eu commission and the finance ministers group. this finance ministers seem to have a slightly different take on things than what the eu does and the offer that the eu proffered what quickly rejected. caroline: thank you. mark: how is the market reacting? good morning. what do you think is the main issue facing greek markets? >> definitely the ball is in greece's court at the moment. the group can reconvene as early as this friday. greece faces two issues. it has to [inaudible] no extension to be accepted. and greece faces a time constraint. they are running out of time and running out of time fast. if no agreement is achieved greece and its banks will face a credit crunch as soon as next month. then the prime minister will face an existential question whether he wants to stay in the eu

jean-claude juncker said he remains concerned. prime minister david cameron spoke for many when he talked about the overall economic consequences that have prolonged -- that a prolonged negotiation could have. >> what is required between greece and the eurozone is not a standoff, but a solution. the british economy is growing and succeeding but we are affected by the situation on the european continent. the longer this standoff goes on, the worst that could be for britain and that underlies the importance of sticking to our own economic plan. >> there are going to be technical discussions, meetings between officials from what we used to call the troika, which may be a little politically inexpedient in greece now. they need to agree to a common set of numbers and get the data before the resumption of talks on monday between finance ministers from the eurozone. a self-imposed deadline to keep greece inside of this bailout program. it ends at the end of the month it after that, they are at the mercy of the markets. it looks like the

the scandal has cast a shadow over the president of the european commission, jean-claude juncker.of the deals were done when he was luxembourg's prime minister. back on the streets of the city he insists his actions were justified. >> the fact that the european parliament created a special committee proves that there is displeasure. >> that hasn't stopped him being charged with that and violations of business secret. it is found guilty, he faces up to five years kind bars. >> how are you feeling? happy tried walking toward the courthouse? >> last time i came here it was to get my papers. >> he doesn't know when or even if his case will come to trial. but he remains convinced he did the right thing. >> you can join the conversation on twitter and let us that what you think of this show. we have had a few tweets today. the u.k. election is going to come upon us like a storm and right now investors aren't too worried about they will be. >> i'm tweeting out a story about swiss watches finally making a smart watch. coming up is the uk's economic growth in jeopardy? by fixing the produc

i know jean-claude juncker was speaking on the phone, and that's another possible for him -- forum. >juncker could play a mediator role. a commission said it might have another six-month extension. sheuble said there cannot be a deal because i don't know about it. he still wants to drive this in terms of an interim loan. the bundesbank president said that was not going to happen. e.u. bylaws would not allow this. yesterday we saw the athens exchange up about 80%. the yields came down a little bit, the three-year and the 10 year, but at the same time you saw yields climbing on the periphery. that is spain and italy. one other final note. the u.s. treasury secretary is urging both sides to be pragmatic on all this in finding a compromise. >> thank you very much. >> on the other side of europe, in eastern ukraine, hopes of negotiating a cease-fire up among the delegates of russian president vladimir putin, ukrainian president poroshenko angela merkel, and francois hollande. if truce talks fail, fresh sanctions could come to the table. william hague told bloomberg the west's common goal i

wanted a phone call with -- phone call overnight, tsipras saying he wanted a phone call with jean-claude juncker. 12 days left until the current bailout ends. they want a bridging loan until september, give them some breathing space and time to do the reforms. however greece can't say, i want, i want. $64 billion, the majority of it to germany. overnight, peaceful protests, 20,000 people for example in the square in athens in front of the parliament building banners saying "end of austerity." >> these were the scenes we saw. >> also, by the way, right across greece, other protests not as big as this one, but for the last eight hours. that has eased off, if you like as people have gone to bed. on saturday, we had talks between greece's finance and foreign ministry and the ecb and imf, talking about areas where they disagree. today obviously greece will be going to the eurogroup finance ministers meeting. >> there have been more friendly noises coming up the last several days. >> there have been but unfriendly, the french. northern europe, perhaps more concerned about greece's stubbornness. fabius

jean-claude juncker is concerned, he is the euro finance group leader. he has expressed a fair amount of pessimism. most of the optimism seems to be coming from the goodwill by the out of that merkel-tsipras meeting, but it is hard to construct an agreement off a goodwill by. brendan: it feels like they took shots together. what are the concessions that germany is willing to grant? hans: the current bailout program that ends at the end of the month, germany has opened the idea that they will tweet and change some of the goals. not exact way clear where they will change that, but they are open to reopen up this package. what greece has set as they will keep about 60%, 70% of it, so they need to have this debate, this discussion that could eventually be an all-night negotiation on the rest of it, on the 30%. tom: hans, i saw video overnight on youtube, the fierce fighting we read about in you. it was a stunning video of violence. can the cease-fire or the seas are to be -- or the cease-fire to be even make it to monday morning? hans: we will have to wait u

about the corporate tax or low tax rates that were put in place by the luxembourg government. 2 jean-claude juncker no confidence. this has to do with germany taking tax a avoidance and shelters very seriously. >> hans, thank you so much. the latest on some of these tax rates. m.p.'s will be grilling two top hsbc executives on taxes. we will bring you the full coverage that this afternoon. >> right. i think stocks are not down by muff. they are off their highs. we went to the closing price high on the ftse. dax backing off a little bit as well but still very much north of the the 11,000 mark. but given where we are and where we have come from and how far we have got, there may be a above it top slicing of those portfolios. what yellen said last night is something we're watching carefully. ♪ >> welcome back. you are watching "the pulse" live from bloomberg's london headquarters. we are talking about greece. getting more comments from the finance minister. saying some really interesting things. >> laying out exactly what the government will or will not do. saying the government will not sell assets.

for grace show up, which was the european union itself, the structures, the commissions, so jean-claude junckertempted to intervene between the finance ministers of europe and the caucus. it did not work. the eu wants this to work. tom: hans nichols had become a station and press conference with the finance minister in brussels. hans? tom:hans: tom, sorry about that earlier. lots of distractions. it is incumbent upon the other side to make the next move talks have collapsed they are suspended, however you want to couches, and overhanging the big question is -- what is yanis varoufakis' new strategy? he has the most to lose and it is the question of put him last night. you're not playing games, you're not bluffing, what game are you playing? what can you assure voters that you are not playing monopoly with fake money? minister varoufakis: i have never played monopoly with fake money i have always played monopoly with monopoly money. hans: the euro is not blinking. they have raise their profile to 50% for a greek exit. we've seen the greek indices down, but the euro is not moving a whole lot. per

is that we are talking about the eu commission, the bureaucratic group of economists run by jean-claude junckery have been trying to press this agreement, so when they say this this is news, but it is not surprising. the eu commission has wanted a deal. we do not have an agreement from the finance ministers. this is a different group, and most importantly finance ministers for schaeuble. we are waiting for the individual finance ministers from all the euro countries. olivia: tsipras said it does not want to call it the troika anymore. tom: ethan, you have a fabulous european team. can they give us clarity? ethan: i do not think they should call us the three amigos. i will say that. [laughter] this is an ongoing mess. every time a decision is made, we have to go through 300 different hoops. tom: do you assume down the road we get to a true debt restructuring that none of this is more than drama before the real ballet? ethan: that is a long, long way off. this is a game where the two sides have to prove their own populations that they have fought the tough battle before they reach an agreement, a