Yanis Varoufrakis: Greece Needs Deal Quickly

Along with French President Francois Hollande, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufrakis sets his sights on a faster development of the Greek bailout deal.

Greece and international lenders need to hasten the development of a bailout deal before an end-June deadline to avoid speculation regarding Greece’s future in the Eurozone. According to Francois Hollande:

"There is an end-June deadline," Hollande told a news conference, referring to the end of a bailout program for Greece and repayment deadlines to the IMF.

"This is the latest possible deadline but nothing stops us from going faster and I think it is in Greece's interest to go faster to avoid doubts or speculation. If we want - and all of us, Greeks and Europeans, have said we do - Greece to stay in the euro zone, we must go towards a solution in a timeframe that is not (as late as) the end of the month."

"In order to make progress we must quickly have, in the coming hours or days, technical talks to narrow positions and to replace the proposals Greece cannot accept with alternative measures.”

Yanis Varoufrakis said:

"What we need is an agreement quickly, we need to avert an accident that would be a mistake.

“Greece’s future is in the EU.

"History would take it down as a failure of the political class of the EU ... Doctor Schaeuble, Mrs Merkel, Mr Tsipras, Mr Juncker, the whole political class - we have an historic duty not to allow this to happen.”