Yanis Varoufakis Quotes

Our position in Europe is not negotiable. The Greek people will defend it by all means. But participation in the euro involves rules and obligations, which we must consistently meet. Greece belongs to Europe and Europe cannot be envisaged without Greece.

The Greek people do not want to exit the euro. And I believe the Greek people already have shown that they have made major sacrifices to stay in the euro zone.

As long as I feel I am doing what I think is right and just for my country, for the Greek people, that is enough for me. Saving Greece from this crisis was the first thing on the agenda. We are now on a much more normalised road.

We will do whatever we could do to keep Greece inside the euro and inside Europe.

I hope Greece is going to remain in the Euro zone.

I acknowledged that I owed my presidency to People Power. I resolved during my presidency that I would in turn empower the people.

Because with courage and conviction I believe we can deliver a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union in which the interests and ambitions of all its members can be met.

The fact that we're going through a crisis is an opportunity for Europe to be more coordinated and more integrated. We're actually talking about a European Monetary Fund or euro bonds, about guarantees for countries, about economic governance in the European Union. That shows the strength of Europe.

I have specifically argued that we need to change our relationship with the European Union by fundamentally reforming not just our relationship but the European Union itself.

When, in 2015, Greece decided by referendum to reject Brussels' austerity plans, the European Union's antidemocratic response took no one by surprise: To deny the people's will had become a habit.

The strength of Europe at the end of the day has always been that we stuck together and that demands a great amount - probably even more so than in the past - of discussions, of balancing, of bringing along individual countries.

Like so many of my generation and those younger, I have spent most of my life in the E.U., and my instincts were naturally for reform from within.

Europe is not a choice, it is a necessity, but it needs to be rethought, refounded.

I think another crisis, which is being predicted now and which will be worse than what we saw in 2008, could bring the European Union down unless there are huge reforms from within to democratize, to give more power to the regions, etc. If this doesn't happen, the European Union will fall.

I think that the Brexit negotiations have to be a big thing that determines the democratic fight-back and galvanizes democratic Europe again against this rising tide of nationalism.

It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients.

The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.

Greece, alone, is in a very vulnerable position. If the Greeks had had support from progressive left and popular forces elsewhere in Europe they might have been able to resist the demands of the Troika, but they had almost no support. Not even from Portugal, Spain, or other left forces. They were left alone.

For me, Europe consists of three things: sovereignty, unity and democracy.

But it is the best thing that we have for bringing the countries of Europe around the same table and for forging compromises so that people here can live in peace, freedom and prosperity. In a world which is growing closer together all the time, we can only survive and influence the rules if we join forces. We will miss the presence of the United Kingdom at this table.

Just as I believe that Britain should want to remain in the EU so the EU should want us to stay.

I want the European Union to be a success. And I want a relationship between Britain and the EU that keeps us in it.

The European Union that emerges from the Eurozone crisis is going to be a very different body. It will be transformed perhaps beyond recognition by the measures needed to save the Eurozone.

France has a special position: We are Continental Europe's nuclear power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council. This special role, though, only makes sense if France fills it as a member state of the European Union. France cannot play this role alone, it must be seen as a part of Europe. I have always insisted on that.

Europe is... a monument to the vanity of individuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure.