Greece wants to end dependence on troika bailout loans

The new leftist Greek government led by Alexis Tsipras, announced it wants to end the existing debt arrangement with the troika (European Union, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) when its aid deadline expires on February 28.

The Greek government plans to start to roll back on austerity measures imposed under its existing bailout agreement. Over the weekend, Greece’s Finance Minister, Yannis Varoufakis said that the Greek government will go “cold turkey” and end its “addiction” to loans from the troika.

“For the last five years, Greece has been living for the next loan tranche. We have resembled drug addicts craving the next dose,” Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said after meeting his French counterpart Michel Sapin in Paris.

Sapin repeated that Greece could not expect its partners to accept a straight debt write off. But he left the door open to other options that could include giving Athens more time for repayment.

“Anything that can alleviate the Greek debt burden will be welcome … but of course there is no question of cancelling the Greek debt,” he said.

Varoufakis said Greece needed a short space of time to present its reform proposals and expected to be able to hammer out a new agreement with its partners within about six weeks. He said he wanted to deal directly with European partners, the ECB and IMF rather than go through inspectors from the troika.

There are scheduled visits by the Finance Minister in London to see British Finance Minister George Osborne and in Rome on Tuesday. A meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has repeatedly demanded that Greece meet all its bailout obligations, would follow in the coming days, he said.

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