Sarkozy to 'speculators': Lay off Greece - Yahoo! Finance
The euro zone's biggest powers will back Greece through the debt crisis that has jeopardized all 16 nations in the common currency, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Sunday.
"Concrete, precise methods exist -- ones we don't need to communicate about tonight, certainly not," he said. "But they will allow us -- when the time comes -- to show that Greece isn't just supported politically but supported in all the aspects of its eventual requests."
France, Germany and Greece will take a common initiative to fight speculation, and the euro zone's two biggest economic powers "have decided to do what's necessary so that Greece is not isolated," Sarkozy said.
Papandreou also suggested the euro-zone should consider creating a "European Monetary Fund" that could support a member in times of crisis, though he acknowledged that such a move would require changing EU treaties.
After the news conference with Sarkozy, Papandreou told reporters that Germany, France, Greece and the informal eurogroup would in coming days detail how they plan to deal with credit default swaps on sovereign debt -- the forms of insurance against a borrower defaulting on its obligations.
The need for Greece to seek help from the IMF has now receded, Papandreou said, but added that t
he option was still open. He said talks are under way in the EU toward finding a mechanism that would allow Greece to
reduce its borrowing costs, though he did not specify.
Papandreou's stop in Paris was the third of a four-stop swing aimed to drum up support for measures announced last week that cut civil servants' pay, froze pensions and hiked fuel, alcohol, sales and other taxes.
He left Paris Sunday for Washington, where he was scheduled to meet Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama on Tuesday. On Friday, he visited Luxembourg and Berlin.
