Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis took the podium of the Economist conference on Thursday and stated that the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government is seeking to forge an agreement with its EU partners. He said that a solution to the deadlock is being sought to ensure that Greece makes a come back.

He said that the next tranche is not the priority of Greece following five years of austerity that has failed. “Nobody would wish for lower supplementary pensions and higher VAT rates just to get the 7.5-billion-euro installment and a return to the rpevious situation,” he said, adding that the reason why negotiations are taking so long are not due to disagreements on a number of issues but on the government’s interest in breaking free from the austerity trap.