Anastasiades meets European leaders in Brussels

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades is having successive meetings with European leaders and officials on the sidelines of the European Council, in Brussels, ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Eurogroup meeting on Cyprus.

President Anastasiades met with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel before the start of the Council meeting.

Tonight he will continue his contacts with separate meetings with Luxembourg Prime Minister and former Eurogroup Chairman Jean – Claude Juncker and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

Earlier on the President also met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during an EPP Summit.

A Cypriot official refused to make any predictions as to the end result of Friday’s Eurogroup meeting.

He spoke of the complexity of the matter, highlighting the fact that all possible efforts to resolve the matter are being undertaken.

“We need an agreement as soon as possible in order to put a stop to the uncertainty and to restart the Cyprus economy,” he said, adding that restoring the country’s credibility is the government`s foremost priority.

Excluded from the international markets, Cyprus applied last June for financial assistance from the EU bailout mechanism, after its banks sought state support following massive write downs of the Greek bond holdings amounting to €2.5 billion or 25% of the island`s GDP, as result of the Greek sovereign debt haircut.

The Cypriot authorities and the Troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF have agreed on a preliminary memorandum of understanding on the conditions of the bailout initially estimated at €17 billion. However Eurogroup President, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Djisselbloem said on Wednesday that the bailout would be closer to €10 billion.