European troika

Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has blamed "hired thugs" for the assault on him on in an Athens restaurant in which his nose was fractured.

"They were not anarchists, leftists, communists or members of any movement," Varoufakis said in a tweet.

Greece is among the seven European Union countries to date to have submitted a fully formed blueprint for the utilization of resources from the Next Generation EU fund. This is according to Declan Costello, the deputy director general for economic and financial affairs at the European Commission.

Yanis Varoufakis, leader of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), on Wednesday attacked Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for suggesting during an interview with ERT state broadcaster Tuesday that his ex finance minister was ready to cooperate with his nemesis, ex German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Let me begin by telling you about Georgios, a postgraduate student in Berlin. When he was younger, he was very athletic and he became a member of a Greek national sports team. Last week, he went to see his professor, Helmut, seeking advice. He'd always expected to pursue a career outside Greece, because of the crisis.

On the cusp of securing a seat in the European Parliament, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on Monday called the performance of his MeRA25 party "a small political revolution."

"The failure of the European Union to give democratic and functional solutions to the present challenges will unavoidably lead to the triumph of chauvinism and an increase in nationalist conflicts," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned on Tuesday.

"The fundamental reason why the Greek crisis lasted so long was the extreme level of austerity that was imposed." That is the verdict of Ashoka Mody, visiting professor in International Economic Policy at Princeton University, a former deputy director of the International Monetary Fund's European Department and one of the most eloquent critics of the policies of the troika in Greece and elsewhe

Archbishop Ieronymos said on Thursday that the troika of the country's international creditors, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and the International Monetary Fund were among the thorns in the side of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

A high ranking official from the Greek Finance Ministry expressed confidence that Greece and its creditors would reach a staff level agreement (SLA) by next Friday. He went to stress that only a minor issue on the labour front was open before the two parties could reach a deal.

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) -- the euro zone's bailout fund -- should ultimately be turned into a European version of the International Monetary Fund, the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Monday in a German newspaper.