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PFI was used by the Labour government to rebuild Britain's schools, hospitals and roads, but was attacked by its many critics as privatisation by stealth. Infrastructure UK, the Treasury body, is currently poring through 150 responses to a consultation that would see what is colloquially known as "PFI mark II" introduced.

But, it is understood that its chief executive, former Alistair Darling adviser Geoffrey Spence, has settled on at least two major changes. These are expected to be sketched out at a conference of public and private sector parties, such as NHS trusts and construction companies, in September.

The Government wants pension funds to finance a large chunk of a £200bn infrastructure programme that ministers hope will kick-start the economy.

However, pension funds have historically been unwilling to put equity into the construction phase of such projects, as it is deemed risky with a very high chance of litigation between client and builder.

Infrastructure UK would look to stimulate this early investment in the next PFI round by allowing pension funds to inject debt as well as equity into the projects. PFI schemes were often 90:10 debt-to-equity, with the banks getting their money back first when the public sector repaid the cost of building and running the property over a 25 to 35-year contract.

By putting up debt, pension funds would see most of their money almost guaranteed to be repaid, making the investment less of a risk. The equity owner can be penalised if the asset misses certain targets, as rudimentary as receptionists failing to answer the phone quickly enough.

An industry source said: "The problem for pension funds has been that the first pound is always repaid, but the last pound – the equity – is the least likely to be repaid. A debt position is a better position to have."

A major criticism of the PFI has been that the public sector has not shared in any of the profit made when the private sector equity holder, often a builder or support services group initially, sell on their stake. The public sector could now take about 50 per cent of the profit from these sales, which in PFIs currently under negotiation alone could be worth £1.5bn to £2bn.

Mr Athanassiadis, 33, is well aware of the dangers. Having lived in Germany for 11 years, much of it in the country's financial capital, Frankfurt, he admits that he has adopted a Germanic attitude to debt, duty and legality.

"As soon as I arrive at the airport in Greece, the taxi driver asks where I am from and then begins ranting about how Germany is destroying Greece," he said.

"But then I say to the taxi driver: 'Are you helping Greece? Do you pay all your taxes?' and he will look shocked and say 'Of course not!'

"That is the problem; if we Greeks can live in Germany as dutiful, law abiding citizens then why can't we do it at home?"

He said that the last time he returned home to his village of Polykastro, in the north, he made few friends "because I told it to them like it is." It is little easier for him in Germany. The Pakistani sandwich maker who delivers to his central-Frankfurt office at lunchtime offered to give him a discount because he was a suffering Greek.

At work, colleagues joke whether Greece would still have been able to play in the Euros if it had dropped out of the euro.

"I still think Angela Merkel is just doing her job," he said. "It's like a big brother telling the rebellious little brother what to do. We need a more German system – albeit one with Greek flexibility. She is right that we need to change our way of thinking."

But Mr Athanassiadis's support for the German chancellor is far from universal among Greeks living in Europe's financial centre. Athanassios Kotsopoulos is a financial lawyer, who worked in-house for a German bank before setting up his own practice, specialising in Greco-German finance.

"Angela Merkel is not being straight with her own people," he said. "She is not explaining to them how essential it is for Germany that Greece stays in the eurozone, and the whole euro does not collapse.

"She won't admit to her electorate that, at the end of the day, she will have to do anything necessary to support Greece and keep the euro alive."

Mrs Merkel has so far refused to waver from her position: that Greece must stick to the austerity measures prescribed by the EU, and that greater EU fiscal integration is not possible without political union.

She dismisses the idea of "Eurobonds" – proposed by the French president, Francois Hollande and Mariano Rajoy, Spain's prime minister - as "counterproductive" quick fixes.

"I'm hearing that she will be forced to accept a 'European solution' – meaning a common budget, pan-European financial oversight, Eurobonds, the lot," said Mr Kotsopoulos, who believes that it is inconceivable that Greece will leave the euro.

Others are not so sure. One German economist told The Sunday Telegraph he was certain Greece would leave the single currency.

"In the short term, they may buy themselves a bit more time. But in the longer term, there's no way they can stay in the euro," he said.

In a video-conferencing room above the trading floor of Commerzbank – one of Germany's largest banks - Christoph Weil, its Greek specialist, was more diplomatic.

"The only thing I know for sure is that Monday will be a very busy day," he said. "If Greece leaves the euro, it will cost Germany 75 billion. How much will it cost to keep them in the euro? The German public is not ready to pay forever, but then is this an acceptable cost?"

The German banker, who was part of a Commerzbank team that travelled to Athens to assess the situation last year, said that Greece was in dire need of a dramatic restructuring of its public sector, which he described as "over-sized, highly inefficient and nepotistic".

"It was absolutely wrong for Greece to enter the euro," he said. "People said 'It's only a small country of 10 million people; it can't possibly destabilise the EU' – but they were mistaken.

"And now we need a solution. A banking union is not a good thing, as the very problem is structural weaknesses in the peripheral countries. Eurobonds are not a good idea – but I think they will come. A fiscal compact is a good idea – but only if all countries stick to it."

And that may be a big ask. "The only solution for Greece is a return to the drachma," said Alexis Valavanis, a Greek businessman in Frankfurt. "Then we can devalue our currency, sort ourselves out, and return to focusing on growth."

Surely his friends back in Thessaloniki cannot share his view, given that every survey shows an overwhelming majority of Greeks want to remain in the euro?

"It's only because they do not understand what is happening. The press is all controlled by Pasok and New Democracy, the parties who insist that Greece will be destroyed if we leave the euro.

"But now we have a situation where we are not free to make our own decisions and do what is right for our country."

He pulled out his mobile phone and gleefully showed The Sunday Telegraph a video of Nigel Farage, the Ukip MEP, haranguing Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the EU commission, and Herman Van Rompuy, EU President, for depriving people of their sovereignty.

"I am flying back to Thessaloniki on Sunday morning just to vote," he said proudly. "We live in a world where democracy has been taken away from us. My vote is the only thing left for me and I must do it for my country."

Given all the obvious patriotism among Greeks in Germany, would any of them ever go back permanently?

"They say we Greeks all have the eyes of Odysseus – always looking for a way to go home," said Aris Athanassiadis, the investment manager. "But given all the turbulence at the moment, I don't think that will be for a while yet."