Greece's Debt Crisis and the Future of Europe

Greece's Debt Crisis and the Future of Europe

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report

Finance ministers from the euro area met in Poland in the middle of September to discuss the Greek debt crisis.

American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner joined them. Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Center in Brussels, said the United States was right to get involved.

"The intervention from the US has also shown at least a risk that the stability of the financial system as a whole -- the global financial system -- might be under threat again."

Earlier, the leaders of France, Germany and Greece held a conference call to discuss how to contain Europe's deepening financial crisis. Germany and France are Europe's two largest economies.

Seventeen European Union countries use the euro as their currency. On September fifteenth, five major central banks agreed to lend additional dollars to European banks in the euro zone.

The European Central Bank says the three-month loans will provide as many dollars as the banks need. The operations will end in December.

The European Central Bank is acting with the United States Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

The announcement helped lift European bank shares and major European stock lists.The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has lowered its growth estimates for the euro area.

In Greece the economy has shrunk this year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged eurozone nations to do everything possible to avoid an "uncontrolled insolvency" by Greece.

On September thirteenth, she warned that problems would quickly spread if Greece failed to pay its international rescue loans.

And, she said, "If the euro fails, Europe fails."The next day, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke to the European Parliament.

He announced that the commission would propose creating "eurobonds." The idea is for euro zone governments to jointly guarantee their debts.

Germany and France have opposed such bonds. Mr. Barroso also said the current system that lets individual countries easily block policy is not working.

"I am convinced we need a deeper and more results-driven integration. ... A system based purely on intergovernment cooperation has not worked in the past and will not work in the future."

For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.