“All roads lead to Rome”, and on Tuesday Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis reportedly used his official contacts in the “Eternal City” to outline a timetable Athens wants to employ to end its intertwined crisis of debt, austerity and economic implosion.
“We will witness the end of the crisis in June. We can do it. Everyone in Europe just needs to calm down,” Varoufakis told Italian reporters shortly before a meeting with his Italian counterpart Pier Carlo Padoan.
Varoufakis, sporting a dark shirt instead of the electric blue version he worn a day earlier on Downing Street, revealed a informal timeline, by which the Greek side hopes to achieve an agreement with its European creditors on June 1.
The new leftist government calls this a “bridge-agreement”, not an “extension”, which the game theorist economist said will give Greece time to reach a deal commencing in June.
Varoufakis’ European tour also appears to be taking in more European capitals, with EZ finance ministers and heads of European institutions apparently eager for a briefing on the new SYRIZA government’s positions.
According to the same sources, Varoufakis will not attend a Tsipras-Renzi meeting.
Next up on Varoufakis’ itinerary is a very closely watched meeting (see Greek bank liquidity issue) in Frankfurt on Wednesday with ECB presdident Mario Draghi, then he takes the plane for Berlin (…not Manhattan) for talks with Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday. It is still up in the air on whether Varoufakis will travel to Brussels for the Tsipras-Juncker meeting.
