In July they volunteered to accept 21% but Jean-Claude Juncker, eurogroup chairman, now says: "We have agreed that we have to have a significant increase in the banks' contribution".
Yanis Varoufakis, the flamboyant Greek finance minister, wrote to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and head of the eurogroup, and laid out seven proposed reforms of the Greek economy before Monday's meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
The country faces a tight deadline of debt repayments starting with a €780m loan installment to the IMF on 12 May, the day after a crucial eurogroup summit.
The chorus of criticism from the eastern periphery of the eurozone meant that the usual suspects – Wolfgang Schäuble of Germany and eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem of the Netherlands – were spared the need to issue their usual dire warnings to the Greeks.
Tsakalotos is expected, along with Varoufakis, to represent Greece at the next eurogroup meeting of finance ministers on 11 May, a make-or-break date for the government to persuade creditors at the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to release funds.
Until this week Varoufakis has worked to a longer timetable than the one set out by the eurogroup of finance ministers.
"There will be no easy access to the ECB's windows until there is a solid agreement with the Eurogroup.
Among those critics were the head of the eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, and the European Central Bank.
Two months on and following last week's disastrous meeting of eurogroup finance ministers in Riga, Varoufakis was defenestrated.
The next opportunity for finance ministers to take stock will be the eurogroup of 11 May," Margaritis Schinas said.
It just so happens, conveniently for him, that the Czechs do not use the euro, so by convention France, which preceded the Czechs in the EU presidency, retain chairmanship in the eurogroup.
