Bruegel: Greek crisis - lending is not giving

26 March 2010

Bruegel Director Jean Pisani-Ferry and Senior Fellow Andre Sapir discuss the complexities surrounding possible EU assistance to Greece. The authors argue that the EU can assist Greece using the same principles employed by the IMF when lending conditionally to a state.

In this article Bruegel Director Jean Pisani-Ferry and Senior Fellow Andre Sapir discuss the complexities surrounding possible EU assistance to Greece.The authors argue that the European Union can assist Greece based on the same principles that the IMF employs when lending conditonally to a state. For the long term, they call for a broader interpretation of Artcile 143 in the European treaty and a clearer diffrentiation of the non-co-responsibility and non-assistance clauses. In the short term, however, there needs to be a framework within the euro area that can coordinate bilateral assistance to Greece.

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