Greece's government is considering a last-minute overture to its creditors in search of more favorable financing terms, as the country nears the expiry of its European bailout program on Tuesday night as well as a default on loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund.
Athens "is taking initiatives in order to end the impasse," said one Greek official. "There is some movement," another official said.
The discussions in Athens came as the European Commission confirmed on Tuesday that its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, had approached Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday night about a marginally sweetened financing offer that would require the Greek government to campaign in favor of creditors' demands in the country's July 5 bailout referendum, a commission spokesman said.
Mr. Juncker's offer, which would still need discussion and approval by eurozone finance ministers, would include the budget cuts and policy overhauls that were being discussed by negotiators on Friday night, when Mr. Tsipras announced the referendum, the spokesman said.
Those proposals, along with a financing plan, were published by the commission Sunday. They contain a few further concessions from Greece's creditors, such as lower sales-taxes on hotels and some more time to phase out a benefit for low-income pensioners, compared with the lenders' previous proposals in documents that form the basis of Sundays' referendum.
According to Greek and European officials Mr. Juncker's offer also included a commitment to revisit the issue of restructuring Greece's debt in October, in line with a pledge by eurozone finance ministers from November 2012 to consider lower interest rates and longer loan maturities to help make Greece's debt more sustainable.
In exchange, Mr. Juncker asked Mr. Tsipras during the Monday night call to campaign for a "yes" vote in Sunday's referendum. Mr. Tsipras has so far called on Greeks to vote "no."
Greek officials initially described Mr. Juncker's offer as too little, too late to change Mr. Tsipras's mind. On Tuesday, however, officials in Athens said the government was considering its own "initiatives in order to the impasse," without specifying what that would involve.
It was unclear on Tuesday whether anything would come of the last-ditch diplomacy between Brussels and Athens, in the face of resistance in key creditor countries to making Greece a more lenient bailout offer.
German officials stressed on Tuesday that the commission has no mandate to offer Greece more lenient bailout terms on behalf of eurozone governments. Germany and the IMF have said they went as far as they could last week in loosening the economic-policy conditions attached to Greece's bailout program.
The commission spokesman declined to confirm whether there would be room for more flexibility on the elements of a deal. "There may be still margins or there may not still be margins, but that would not be for us, but for the Eurogroup to consider," said the spokesman, referring to eurozone finance ministers.
Nikos Pappas, a Greek lawmaker and close aide to Mr. Tsipras, told Greece's parliament on Tuesday that the government would stick to its rejection of creditors' demands and call on voters to do the same, despite Europe's appeals. "They should stop dreaming," he said. A strong "no" from voters would allow the government to resume talks with creditors and reach a "good deal for Europe and for Greece and for our people next week," Mr. Pappas said.
German and some other European officials have dismissed Athens's claims that a "no" vote would strengthen its negotiating hand, warning instead that a "no" would far more probably lead to Greek exit from the euro.
The scramble by Athens and the Brussels-based commission to find a compromise comes as Greece faces a double deadline on Tuesday. The European part of its five-year-old bailout expires, and the country is set to default on a €1.55 billion loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.
Those two events have no immediate further consequences for Greece's economy. Its banks already remained closed after the weekend after the European Central Bank capped the amount of emergency liquidity support. Cash withdrawals by Greeks have been limited to €60 a day since Monday. But the looming bailout expiration and IMF default put Greece in uncharted waters ahead of its referendum on Sunday, heightening anxiety over its survival in the euro.
Mr. Tsipras had further phone conversations on Tuesday with Mr. Juncker, ECB head Mario Draghi and European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a senior Greek official said.
The news came after the Greek finance ministry said some Greek banks were expected to reopen Wednesday for pensioners who don't have debit or credit cards.
The branches will open despite the closure imposed on Greek banks until July 6 and will only serve pensioners and those who can't withdraw money from automatic cash machines.
They will be limited to withdrawals of €120 ($ 134) this week. Currently, there is a daily limit of cash withdrawals of €60 a day from ATMS.
Greece decided at the weekend to shut down its banking system, ordering lenders to stay closed for at least a week to prevent money from flooding out of the country.
The Greek Finance Ministry reiterated assurances that bank deposits will remain safe after Sunday's referendum.
Over the weekend, Mr. Tsipras shocked European policy makers by announcing the country will hold a referendum on whether to accept the terms of Greece's creditors to unlock desperately needed financial aid.
Write to Viktoria Dendrinou at viktoria.dendrinou@wsj.com and Nektaria Stamouli at nektaria.stamouli@wsj.com
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