George Papandreou

After Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou declaration, in the 13th of January 2010

There is no case of Greece leaving the euro zone or resorting to other kind of help, such as the IMF. It would not be a courageous measure to make the poor and wage-earners pay — this is not our policy.

A senior Greek official said yesterday, the 18th of March 2010, that Greece may seek financial help from the International Monetary Fund over the April 2-4 Easter weekend if no detailed rescue plan were forthcoming from the European Union.

Workers in Greece protest government attacks on wages and benefits

George Papandreou also warned that Athens would not be able to make planned deficit cuts unless it can borrow money more cheaply.

But if we keep borrowing at very high rates, and this is the challenge we have, we cannot sustain the deficit reduction that these hard measures aim to achieve, we should be able to borrow at rates that are normal.

The latest waves of public protests include Greek taxi drivers and many gas station owners striking against a proposed overhaul of tax laws under the government’s efforts to overcome its debt crisis; the taxi drivers are planning a protest march through central Athens later today.

I assume that making a fraudulent declaration as to your intended use, alone,  may constitute an offence.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that euro expulsion should be raised against repeated fiscal offenders.

In the future we need a treaty entry that would make it possible, as a last-resort, to exclude a country from the euro zone if the conditions are not fulfilled again and again over the long term. Otherwise cooperation is impossible.

Brussels, meanwhile, called 14 countries to order — including France, Germany and Spain — saying their deficit-cutting programmes are insufficiently concrete and over-rosy.