In a latest comment released from George Osborne, the Chancellor states that leaders in Europe need to act and they need to act fast because the debt crisis in the eurozone is spreading well beyond their region. As well, their indecisiveness on how to resolve their problems is prolonging the crisis. He states that they need to come up with some type of credible solution and act on it without delay before the contagion spreads even further afield.
This was how Chancellor George Osborne addressed the meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels today. When speaking to the 27 ministers, Osborne made it perfectly clear that he feels it is time to end the debate and finally do something that will affect the long term goals of the region. It is time to put aside all the short term measures which have been, to this date, ineffective.
Of primary concern will be the recapitalisation of banks in Europe at a time when it is feared that Greek holdings will be the catalyst to another debt crisis. The prime minister will address the EU leaders at some point tomorrow at which time it is said that he will vow to have a viable solution by the second meeting on Wednesday next.
Of those ministers who use the euro as their currency (17 in total), they agreed that it was time to give Greece the next payment on the bailout which equates to £7 billion. Even so, this was met with some amount of disillusionment because now it is forecast that Greek holdings will be devalued by as much as 60%.
The ministers had originally agreed to come up with a solution much earlier than Wednesday, but with all the latest problems, the date was set back by a few days to give them ample time to weigh in these new factors and to work on a resolution of their differences.
