Schulz, during a short press conference following Wednesday's Greek debt crisis debate in Strasbourg said he'd spoken with the country's prime minister Alexis Tsipras to explain that his widely reported remarks were a translation mix up rather than an attempt to influence the outcome of Greece's referendum on Sunday.
He told journalists that he had spoken to Tsipras just before the plenary discussion, "and in that meeting I spoke about this presumption that I had interfered in the internal debate about the [referendum] campaign in Greece."
In an interview published in the German Handelsblatt business daily, Schulz was reported as saying that his trust in Tsipras and his left-wing Syriza party had reached "rock bottom" and that he hoped that a Tsipras defeat in last Sundays' referendum would, "be bridged by a [transitional] technocratic government, so that we can continue to negotiate".
His alleged comments infuriated MEPs within the European parliament's leftist groups which accused the German deputy of unacceptably interfering in Greece's internal political affairs. However, Schulz said the row was the result of a "misunderstanding or translation fault".
"I explained to Tsipras, that wasn’t it funny that my interview in German made no noise in Germany, but it did in other countries. That showed that there was some misunderstanding."
Projecting a conciliatory tone following the heated exchanges within the Strasbourg hemicycle, Schulz also suggested Wednesday's Greek debt crisis debate was a "milestone in the development of European democracy.
He said that that the presence in the chamber of EU council president Donald Tusk, commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, rotating Luxembourg council presidency head, prime minister Xavier Bettel, as well as Tsipras himself was like "a general assembly of the European institutions".
"The fact that we had such an open and highly controversial debate with MEPs shows that European transnational democracy exits. And it exists right here in the European parliament."
Schulz added that he intended to open the doors of the European parliament to make it a place where "controversial debates between countries and nations happens, happened here today".
Looking to defuse tensions ahead of this weekend's crunch EU summit, Schulz summarised the morning's events. "The debate was as everyone saw, highly emotional; I think it was quite clear as to the dramatic situation we are in."
"It was also clear to me that everyone, Including Tsipras has today seen and understood the heterogeneity of opinion across the EU. We saw that within the eurozone there are many very different opinions, approaches and proposals".
"Imagine how difficult it therefore is [within such a short timeframe and taking into account the diversity of the debate] to come to a conclusion on [new debt proposals] that are acceptable to everybody", said Schulz.
"But, that's what we need and I therefore hope that [the] debate has contributed to finding solutions ahead of Sunday's [last chance] EU summit. I hope that we are not running out of time."