As European stocks fall amid fears of drastic developments in Greece - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has delivered a defiant speech to the Greek parliament, accusing European politicians and policymakers of trying to humiliate Greece.

He stated, "The mandate we have got from the Greek people is to end austerity."

Adding: “In order to achieve that, we have to seek a deal which will spread the burden evenly and which will not hurt wage earners and pensioners."

The PM said that the policies imposed on the IMF have damaged the Greek economy to the point that it holds “criminal responsibility” for the country's current financial problems.

He proposed that debt relief will be necessary to fix the Greek economy, and that European officials have ignored similar advice from the IMF:

"Why do [European leaders] accept [the IMF’s] harsh measures but not its proposals for debt restructuring?” he asked.

German newspaper, Bild has said that Greece hopes to postpone debt repayments until the end of the year.

The story cited anonymous Greek officials, and has been denied by the Greek government.

It has been suggested that in order for there to be any hope of Greece making its repayment to the IMF which is due on June 30th there will need to be some sort of breakthrough by the end of this Thursday's Eurogroup meeting.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has clarified that the Greeks will not be putting forward any new proposals or concessions at the meeting, saying that it "is not the right place to present proposals which haven’t been discussed and negotiated on a lower level before" - lower level negotiations are currently frozen.