Greek PM optimistic after Europe talks

With all Europe waiting to see how Greece proposes to renegotiate its massive bailout loans, Mr Tsipras and his finance minister are on a whirlwind tour of the region to discuss possible solutions.

Mr Tsipras wants easier terms of repayment on the 240 billion euro in bailout loans and to relax the austerity budget measures the country has been required to make.

“I’m very optimistic after these discussions that we are in a good way,” Mr Tsipras said, after meeting the presidents of the EU’s three main institutions. “We don’t have already an agreement but we are in a good direction to find a viable agreement.”

Mr Tsipras said his anti-austerity government would respect the will of Greek voters as well as the EU’s rules. “We want to re-correct this framework, not to smash this framework,” he said.

In a short trip to Brussels before heading to France, Mr Tsipras was welcomed at the European Commission, one of the three main institutions overseeing Greece’s finances, by President Jean-Claude Juncker, who underlined that the EU would show flexibility in helping Athens deal with its debts but ruled out wholesale policy changes.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis met with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi before holding talks with German counterpart.