Europe faced the spectre of Greek calls for new financial aid as Athens’ ‘catastrophic’ finances returned to haunt stressed eurozone states, despite efforts to prevent panic. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou urged “everyone, inside and outside Greece, in the EU in particular, to leave Greece in peace to do its job.” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou also warned bailout bosses gathered for unscheduled G20-eurozone talks in Luxembourg Friday that Athens needs “breathing space,” Greek media reported.
But at the same time his country’s press and specialist financial reports were raising the possibility that the government may yet call for fresh European Union funds on top of the 110 billion euros ($160 billion) agreed a year ago. The resurrection of the Greek debt conundrum comes days after a 78-billion aid package was agreed with Portugal and fresh from a 67.5-billion international rescue for Ireland. Officials meanwhile denied denied the Luxembourg talks were a crisis meeting on Greece. Such meetings “take place at irregular intervals”, sometimes in person and sometimes in a conference call, a German government source told AFP.
