Greece starts 'charm offensive'

The two main faces of Greece's leftist new government - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis - are to meet with EU leaders this week as part of what many have dubbed a charm offensive. Their aim is to convince influential policy makers of their coalition government's main goal of implementing a debt program that helps the Greek economy grow.

On Sunday evening, the Greek finance minister kicked off his European tour in Paris, where he underlined his country's desperation to enter a new phase in economic recovery.

"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 Varoufakis told reporters, referring to the country's 240-billion euro ($270 billion) bailout.

"What this government is all about is ending the addiction," he said, adding that it was time to go "cold turkey." He said that Athens wanted to draft a detailed plan by the end of February, when its bailout expires, and then hoped to reach an agreement with international partners by mid-April.

Since taking power less than a week ago, the new Greek government, made up of the leftist Syriza party and right-wing Independent Greeks, has said it doesn't want the next and final tranche of bailout money, worth 7.2 billion euros ($8.14 billion).

It has also refused to negotiate with technocrats representing its international lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - also known as the "troika." Instead it is seeking direct talks with each of the three institutions.

France supports Greece

France's finance minister offered his government's support to Greece, noting that a "new contract between Greece and its partners" was needed to address many issues plaguing Greece, including debt.

However, Finance Minister Michel Sapin stressed during the Paris press conference, "Anything that can alleviate the Greek debt burden will be welcome ... but of course there is no question of cancelling the Greek debt."

Concerns have mounted within the eurozone that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wants debt forgiveness for Athens, thus inflicting a substantial loss of money on lenders.

Such talk had sparked serious concerns in many European countries, so much so that German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out the possibility in an interview published in the Saturday edition of the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.

However, both Tsipras and Varoufakis have sought to calm nerves, emphasizing that they want a better deal that will spur growth in the Greek economy, thus allowing Greece to pay back its debt, which exceeds 175 percent of its economic output, or roughly 320 billion euros.

Tsipras is to meet with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker this week. Meanwhile, Varoufakis will travel to London on Monday and Rome on Tuesday for talks with his British and Italian counterparts. The Greek finance minister has said he would like to travel to Berlin as well, but according to news agency AFP, the German finance ministry has not yet received an "official request" for a meeting.

The end of the troika?

A report published by German financial newspaper Handelsblatt on Sunday suggested that European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker was planning to disband the troika.

Citing sources from within the EU Commission and close to Juncker, the report said that the decision was an attempt by Juncker to accommodate Tsipras' government and find an "alternative" to the auditors, whose visits to Athens Greeks have been openly protested in the past.

kms/gsw (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)