Former Belgium Prime Minister and the first full-time European Council President Herman von Rompuy’s book, “Europe in the Storm” (May 2014), casts the spotlight on Greece and a number of meetings  that took place from the first summit that he attended on February 11, 2010. Even prior to that, in December 2009, he writes that the former Greek socialist PASOK prime minister George Papandreou had shocked and impressed his European counterparts due to his unusually honest presentation of the abominable financial situation in his country.

At the February summit there were marked problems and fears that Greece would sway other countries down a difficult and painful path towards austerity. Apart from the salvation of the European Monetary Union, there was a lack of political inclination to support a country that had broken all the agreed conditions. The involvement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was viewed by many countries as “humiliating” for Europe, according to Mr. Rompuy.

The book falsely refers to the fall of the Greek socialist PASOK party in February 2012, but marks this time as the peak of the economic crisis. He said that in June, 2012, he had considered personally addressing the Greek people in a television message but did not go through with it, following the advice of the Greek leadership at the time.

Mr. Rompuy states that the “moment of truth” came during the June 28-29 summit of that year when European Central Bank President Mario Draghi decided to give a famous speech pledging to do all that was required to save the euro currency. That was the start of the Grexit.