Greece is facing a fundamental change in its mindset.  The country cannot carry on behaving as before and even the Greeks themselves are aware of this. 
Alexis knows where to lay the blame "The crisis.  It's our own fault.  But even the Germans are letting us financially bleed out rather than helping us."
Athens, April 2010.  Shortly after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, gave a dramatic speech at Kastelorizo about the tough times ahead, I found myself in a taxi on the way to a meeting with the Greek President. The EU Budgetary Control Committee was off to Athens to examine the falsified budgets and the appropriation of EU subsidies.  
Alexis was my taxi driver.  At the airport he grabbed my suitcase with effusive warmth and stuffed it into his dusty Mercedes, complete with religious talismen on the rear-view mirror.  The only topic of conversation was the crisis.  Alexis knew that the Greeks pay far too little tax and distrust the government but are only too happy to take its money and wait for everyone else to make the first move.  Unfortunately (almost) no-one is willing to start. Not yet. Reaching my destination Alexis and I parted like old friends. Was Greece saved? 

The 45 year old Athenian rummaged in his wallet and gave me my change.  I generously rounded up but waited in vain for a receipt. That was a little test because if I had asked, I would have received one. This just shows how 45€ for a 30km drive can trickle into the Greek black market.  Of the five taxi drivers who drove me around Athens, only one voluntarily gave me a receipt. 
Greece needs to change.  The Greeks know it but they are always waiting for someone else to take the first step.  Greece will never be able to leave the headlines with such an attitude! Greece is threatening to send the Euro into free fall.  The IMF and the Eurozone are trying to save the essential European unification project with a rescue package worth billions.  But it's not just Europe that is on a knife's edge.  Modern Greece with its 200 year old state needs to try to reinvent itself. 
One theme that ran through many articles in the last few weeks is that the Greeks are too stuck in their ways to recover.  Although the tabloids attack the 'bankrupt Greeks' there are some more enlightened articles out there, such as Alexandros Stefanidis' piece "Highway to Hellas".  Yes, Stefanidis is right.  Without a fakelaki - discrete bribes - you cannot achieve much in Greece.  Yes, the Greeks think of the state as the enemy.  Yes, rousfeti, - little 'favours' - prop up Greek society and exist even in the highest echelons of Greek politics. 
As the conservative Nea Dimokratia came to power in 2004 with the fraudster George Alogoskoufis as Minister of Economy and Finance, Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis appointed 68,000 new civil servants.  This sort of behaviour has come to an end.  Prime Minister Papandreou, a member of the socialist Pasok party, is aware of the rotten parts of the state and he is reacting: when a Secretary of State arbitrarily transferred a soldier, Papandreou suspended him immediately. 
Until now the Greeks believed that it was enough to invent democracy and then rest on their laurels.  But this is no longer adequate.  I believe that the Greeks have seen the writing on the wall.  Without being overly optimistic I would assert that Greece is on the way to a fundamental behaviour change.  Europe will soon learn a new word, more compelling than rousfeti and fakelaki put together: filotimo. 
Filotimo encompasses virtue, honour, rectitude, but also pride. The Greeks need to mobilize their filotimo; the strength, ability, skill and virtue that got them through so many catastrophes and helped them to realise their dreams. We have already witnessed some examples such as the success of the 2004 Olympic Games. 
I believe that the Greeks are close to grasping hold of their filotimo.  Even Alexis my friendly taxi driver meditated on this word.  However, Greece's future depends on something even more important: simply, the willingness to hand over an unsolicited receipt. 

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis is a member of the European Parliament and President of the German-Hellenic trade association.