EU Summit: To bail out or not to “Bailout”, ongoing talks

EU leaders all want a solution and are examining how much they are willing to compromise for a stable euro

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, attending his first EU summit as the head of Greece, met with Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem. The men agreed that Greek officials would meet with representatives of the troika of Greece’s international creditors from the European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday to talk about a way out of the hated bailout program.

Dijsselbloem tweeted that it was agreed “to ask the institutions to engage with the Greek authorities to start work on a technical assessment of the common ground between the current program and the Greek government’s plans.” This would pave the way for the crucial Eurogroup meeting on Monday.

The goal is to find a way to prevent Greece from running out of money at the end of February, thus preventing the country from abandoning the euro and sparking widespread financial turmoil.

The agreement came just 24 hours after EU finance ministers fell short of presenting a joint statement on the next step because Greece didn’t want any reference to the “troika” or “extension” of the current program.

Arriving at the meeting, Tsipras appeared confident that a solution could be found to break the impasse and deal with what he called the EU’s “humanitarian crisis.”

Tsipras also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the first time. She said that Germany was prepared for a compromise, nonetheless she also told reporters upon her arrival to the summit with EU leaders that “Europe’s credibility depends on us sticking to rules.”

In a nutshell

If the bailout deal is “extended” the voters will feel cheated by the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA).

If the bailout deal isn’t extended, then the Germans, the Dutch and Spanish leaders will have to tell their voters that Greece is getting a new deal, spurring on other countries to follow suit.

If a compromise solution isn’t found, Greece could leave the euro causing market turmoil.