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Greece’s Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis requested that the 27 billion euro of bonds owed to the European Central Bank be pushed into "the distant future." He however admitted that this would not be easily done due to the different positions of the European Central Bank and the Bundesbank.

"How could this be done? Through a swap. This idea fills (Mario) Draghi’s soul with fear," said Varoufakis. According to him, the President of the European Central Bank is in a serious conflict with the German central bank because of the quantitative easing programme.

The statements of the colourful minister both in parliament and at the Economist conference caused a commotion with regard to the intentions of Athens to pay the European Central Bank 6.7 billion euro of obligations in July and August.

Later, Yanis Varoufakis clarified in a Twitter post that he had said nothing about non-payment of obligations but insisted on a swap through the "mediation" of the European Financial Stability Facility.

Greece’s Minister of Finance also said that the public debt was not sustainable, it would have to be "reorganized", specifying that he did not mean a "haircut".

Yanis Varoufakis stressed that Athens was seeking to come to agreement with the partners, creditors, by the end of May, pointing out at the same time that he would not sign the medium-term support programme that "would not be consistent and able to attain the targets."

The Minister of Finance said that the government of SYRIZA and Independent Greeks had already reached an agreement with the creditors on many issues. According to Varoufakis, Athens has agreed that "the pension system is not sustainable" and that the state administration needs to change. "If Greece does not reform it will sink," he said.

At the same time, Yanis Varoufakis said that VAT rates would not change until the end of summer. As for privatizations, he expressed opinion that state assets should be utilized, but not sold, and that the state should hold a share in the privatized companies.

Yanis Varoufakis also said that Greece needed an investment bank and organization to deal with the settlement of non-performing loans that were hampering the functions of Greek banks.