In reaching a deal with Greece, Germany is the last remaining holdout.

Even Greece-skeptic countries like Finland have shifted 180 degrees to become true believers in mathematical nonsense. 

And after bitter fighting and infighting, Greece nears €86bn Accord with Creditors.

 Significant concessions by Alexis Tsipras and his negotiators in the past month have encouraged other hawkish eurozone members such as Finland to break with Berlin, which wants to hold out longer to squeeze more reforms from Athens.

Even previously sceptical EU diplomats now say that a full agreement could be reached by the August 20 deadline, when Athens must make a €3.2bn debt repayment to the European central bank.

The cautious optimism contrasts sharply with the acrimony at last month's eurozone summit, which came close to ushering Greece out of the currency bloc before agreeing to negotiate a deal. The main elements of the proposed deal include spending cuts, administrative reform and privatisations. Remaining sticking points between Athens and its creditors include details of a €50bn privatisation plan and proposals for raising the planned budget surplus, excluding debt interest, to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product in 2018 from zero this year.

Officials in Brussels said an early deal was “ambitious but feasible”. But they emphasised that while this was the “preferable” way forward, the option of a €5bn bridging loan to give negotiators more time, championed by Berlin, was still on the table.  

Germany, the biggest creditor, was late last week still holding out for more reforms from Athens, arguing that a two- or three-week bridging loan was better than hurriedly striking an inadequate three-year deal. Jens Spahn, deputy finance minister, tweeted on Friday: “It is better done thoroughly than hastily.”

An EU official said that even if Wolfgang Schäuble, Berlin's hawkish finance minister, dug in his heels, chancellor Angela Merkel would not want Berlin isolated.