Paris--European stocks tumbled on Tuesday as the Eurogroup chief reported slow progress in debt talks between Athens and its creditors aimed at preventing Greece from defaulting.
The CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.41 percent to close at 5,004.46 points, while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 fell 0.94 percent to 11,328.80 points.
Outside the eurozone, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index finished the day down 0.36 percent to 6,928.27 points.
But the euro shot up to 1.1116 from 1.0924 late in New York on Monday.
"Ongoing Greek talks remain one obvious risk event this week especially as the country needs to pay 300 million euros to the IMF on Friday," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda foreign exchange trading company.
"There are some small signs of progress being made although that is doing little to settle the markets, with most European equity indices in the red ..." he added.
Greece said Tuesday it had made "difficult concessions" in a "realistic" reform plan it has put to its creditors as a critical repayment on its massive debt looms.
However the head of the eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, later said that "not enough" progress had been made and no "half-way" compromise would be considered.
"There is some progress, but it's really not enough," Dijsselbloem said on Dutch television of the talks aimed at unlocking 7.2 billion euros in remaining bailout funds.
"We're still nowhere far enough, that's the conclusion and time is pressing," said Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister.
There were high-level talks on Greece late Monday in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, ECB chief Mario Draghi, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and IMF chief Christine Lagarde.
According to German daily Die Welt the aim was to come up with "a final proposal" to present to Athens. There are fears that Athens does not have the necessary funds and will default, possibly setting off a chain of events that could end with a messy exit from the euro.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his administration would implement a series of privatisations that it had previously opposed, and reform the value added tax system as well as the pension system -- issues that had been holding up a deal.
AFP
