CRI听力:Eurozone Leaders Try to Reach Debt Deal with Greece

Eurozone Finance Ministers left the Eurogroup meeting on Sunday with a little more optimism than they'd had going into it.

The previous day, the group spent 9 hours in talks to try to reach an agreement on a working plan for a third Greek bailout, with little success.

On concluding their second round of discussions on the subject, the Finnish Finance Minister, Alex Stubb, said he and his Eurozone counterparts had drafted an ambitious proposal.

"I think there's a very good proposal on the table…. It has far-reaching conditionality….For us the most important thing is that if we were to open negotiations on ESM (European Stability Mechanism) this whole package has to be approved by both the Greek Government and the Greek Parliament."

That proposal was then handed to Eurozone leaders to discuss at a later summit in Brussels….Where all eyes were on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, with his country's fate hanging in the balance.

"I'm here ready for an honest compromise. We owe that to the peoples of Europe who want Europe united and not divided. We can reach an agreement tonight if all parties want it."

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel though entered the Eurozone leaders summit in a more pessimistic mood, calling the discussions over Greece's bailout extremely difficult.

"There will be no agreement at any price. I know everyone is on the edge. But we have to ensure that that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, namely for the future of Greece as well as for the euro zone as a whole and the principles of our cooperation."

Opposing his German counterpart, French President Francois Hollande however, said he was going to do everything he could to keep Greece in the Euro.

"There is no temporary Grexit, there is a Grexit or no Grexit. Or to spell it out in French: Greece is in the euro zone or Greece is no longer in the euro zone, but in that case it's a Europe that retreats and does not progress, and I don't want this."

After six months of negotiations, the coming days will be crucial for the single currency.

But questions will be raised over how damaging these lengthy discussions on Greece have been to the eurozone's credibility and whether the group will be able to come back from this.

For CRI, I'm Natalie Powell in Brussels.