Euro Area

[Kralizec]

Well, the only point Boris forgot, like most, is THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY to quit the Euro. I am not a lawyer, but this treaty, imposed against the will of at least 3 countries that voted against, is signed between sovereign countries. There is no, I repeat, no, countries more equal than others. Perhaps the Conservative Boris has a problem with the concept of equality in front of the law, but as much I was and am against the Treaty of Lisbon Greece is still an equal partner. All the scaremongering and the fear factor can't g again the fact that if Greece doesn't want to go, nobody can decide for her. Even if the Greeks decide to not pay the debt to banks... I can't stop laughing and crying....

At present there is no (legal) way for the others to force them to leave EMU, so yes, Greece could refuse to leave. However, they would have nowhere to turn for financing anything. They simply cannot pay for their own bills, even if you exclude interests on their current loans. They think that the current austerity measures are bad, but once they no longer receive EU/IMF aid their government would only be able to spend money that they collect in taxes first. And even that is purely theoretical, because it doesn't take a genius to realize that the entire economy will collapse almost immediately.

In such a case, the EU countries will ignore Greece and concentrate their efforts on keeping Italy, Spain and a legion of banks afloat. They might still agree to give Greece some aid under the condition that they'll leave the Eurozone voluntarily. If they're to be kept in the EU at all, that would presumably require a treaty change because the current one doesn't acknowledge the possibility of leaving only the EMU. Since this is not a hopeful situation for the rest of Europe either, we can be pretty sure that Greece will receive help as long as they keep their end of the agreements.

I'm happy with Greece's latest election results. I do think that New Democracy should stop calling themselves "the conservatives" though. That title now belongs to Syriza. Syriza ran on a platform of continuing Greece's policies of the last three decades: more government jobs, more social security and more deficit spending in general. As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly

For the record, assuming Greece does get a government that abides by the existing agreements, I do think that we should be more lenient towards them. That could be either by less austerity or more EU investments in Greece. I just think it's folly to promise further relief when it's still open to doubt wether they'll honour their promises.