Europe is these
\ndays oscillating between anxiety and exasperation. Half of the Germans, for
\ninstance, are calling for ‘Grexit’, namely Greece’s leaving the Eurozone, as
\nthe country is on the brink of bankruptcy. On June 30th, Greece is
\nsupposed to reimburse some 1.5 billion Euros to the IMF, but the state’s
\ntreasury is empty, so the unblocking of the 7.2 billion Euro worth of aid that
\nthe IMF and the EU promised last year is imperative. Greece’s international
\ncreditors, however, have one condition: for Greece to get the money, it has to
\nmake savings and implement a number of reforms, especial with regard to the
\npensions system. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The radical left, though, which is holding the reigns of power
\nin Greece, seems engaged in a dialogue of the deaf. On the one hand, unlike the
\nGermans, who plead for austerity and strict rules, the Greeks believe it’s
\nillegitimate for anybody to force upon them a certain political and economic
\npolicy. On the other hand, they are counting on the European solidarity. But,
\nthe Europeans, who are now trying to find a solution, say’ enough is enough!’.
\nGathered in Luxembourg on Friday, the Eurozone finance ministers only needed
\none and a half hour to decide they could not authorize the disbursement of
\nthe financial aid to Greece. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Subsequently, the Eurozone heads of state and government were summoned to an
\nemergency meeting in Brussels on Monday, to discuss the situation from a
\npolitical perspective. The usual summer summit is still due in late June, but
\nthere is not enough time left for the aid to be approved by the European
\nparliaments. Without this help, though, Greece has no money to pay the IMF
\nback, thus risking to default on all payments. In fact, the IMF Director
\nChristine Lagarde was quite firm in stating that Greece will not benefit from
\nany postponement. In the meantime, Athens has been looking for solutions,
\npendulating between the West and the East, more precisely between the EU and
\nRussia, in an attempt to prove its economic and financial potency, apparently
\nuntouched by the sanctions imposed by Europeans against the background of the
\nconflict in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This past weekend’s meeting in St. Petersburg between the
\nRussian president Vladimir Putin and the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
\nwas the second after the one held in Moscow in April. Prior to Friday’s
\nmeeting, the Kremlin leader had stated that his country was ready to offer
\nGreece financial support, particularly thorough energy infrastructure projects,
\nmore specifically by extending across Greece the Russian – Turkish pipeline
\n‘Turkish Stream’, owned by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, a project that was
\nlaunched last year. Washington, however, has already voiced disapproval of
\nAthens’s participation in this project. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Europe is trying to find a solution to help Greece avoid defaulting on payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":64429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[33896,38096,28954,28953,38097],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-64428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-bankruptcy","tag-default","tag-eurozone","tag-greece","tag-tsipras"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n