Search for an article

Select a plan

Choose a plan from below, subscribe, and get access to our exclusive articles!

Monthly plan

$
13
$
0
billed monthly

Yearly plan

$
100
$
0
billed yearly

All plans include

  • Donec sagittis elementum
  • Cras tempor massa
  • Mauris eget nulla ut
  • Maecenas nec mollis
  • Donec feugiat rhoncus
  • Sed tristique laoreet
  • Fusce luctus quis urna
  • In eu nulla vehicula
  • Duis eu luctus metus
  • Maecenas consectetur
  • Vivamus mauris purus
  • Aenean neque ipsum
روما بت
ماه بت
پین باهیس
بهترین سایت شرط بندی
بت کارت
یاس بت
یک بت
مگاپاری
اونجا بت
alvinbet.org
بت برو
بت فا
بت فوروارد
وان ایکس بت
1win giriş
بت وینر
بهترین سایت شرط بندی ایرانی
1xbet giriş
وان کیک بت
وین بت
ریتزو بت
1xbet-ir.com.co/
https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/paperiounblocked2?lang=EN https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/agariounblockedschool1?lang=EN https://yohoho-io.app/ https://2.yohoho-io.net/paper.io unblocked https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/yohoho-unblocked-76?lang=EN https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/agariounblockedpvp https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/yohoho?lang=EN
HomeBREAKING NEWSGoing It Alone: Macron Calls on Europe to Solve Debt Crises Without...

Going It Alone: Macron Calls on Europe to Solve Debt Crises Without IMF Help

Published on

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for the International Monetary Fund to take a back seat from European affairs after its ill-fated participation in the Greek bailout; French economist Philippe Bechade told reporters that the EU should be able to handle its own financial problems without asking the IMF for help.

image-15071

The EU and IMF took the wrong approach to Greece’s sovereign debt crisis and bailout, and the country’s creditors should lighten their demands, French President Emmanuel Macron said in Athens on Thursday.

Macron called for an ambitious reform of Eurozone institutions that would entail the creation of a new European Monetary Fund to handle similar problems in future. He said that the IMF, which participated in the Greek bailout due to pressure from Germany, “had no place in EU affairs.”

“The presence of the IMF was a symptom of the lack of trust between European states, between European institutions and the member states,” Macron told journalists after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

French economist Philippe Bechade told Sputnik France that “in theory, Europe is not a region in a difficult situation,” and should be able to resolve its own financial difficulties without assistance from the IMF.

“Initially, the sum being talked about was 50 billion euros, which could have been quickly resolved. Germany in principle did not want to do this because it thought that German taxpayers should not have to pay for the stupidity of Greece,” Bechade said.

Prior to the onset of the Greek debt crisis in 2010, the IMF’s lending rules stipulated that it would only issue loans to countries which were able to repay their debts, and its resources were mainly used by smaller, developing economies. Unlike Greece, such economies have a local central bank to control monetary policy and have the option of devaluing their 

image-15072

However, fears in the EU that a default on Greek debt could spread panic throughout the Eurozone led European leaders, in particular German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to demand IMF involvement in the Greek bailout.

“Since Germany refused to assume the main financial risks by itself, the question arose, ‘would it not be better to turn to the IMF,’ which knows the problem well and knows how to improve the situation in the country.”

The IMF therefore became part of Greece’s “Troika” of creditors, along with the European Commission and the European Central Bank. They have loaned Greece about 260 billion euros ($312.86 billion) since 2010, but the IMF has so far declined to take part in the third bailout for Greece unless European leaders commit to a formal restructuring of Greece’s debt.

“The IMF got involved in the Greek bailout “because they asked it for help. Currently, the IMF mainly helps developing countries which are in a difficult position. I don’t think this applies to Greece, which is the cradle of philosophy and democracy, as Mr. Macron recalled in Athens. I don’t think that it meets the criteria of countries that the IMF usually helps,” Bechade said.

image-15071

“The main thing is that Germany is the main investor in Europe, the largest trading power, and the influence of bilateral exchanges between Germany and other European countries has to be taken into account. Germany realized that if it demanded money from Greece, it would not get it back.”

“Asking the IMF is a way of sharing the risks, it’s asking somebody who understands the crux of the matter, above all this concerns [former IMF chief] Mr. Strauss-Kahn.”

According to a 2015 Reuters special report, the decision to offer financing to Greece was taken by Strauss-Kahn and a small group of his advisers, who disregarded opposition from non-European board members.

Last year, a report by the IMF’s own Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) 

image-15074

In June 2015, Greece became the first Western country to default on its IMF loan after missing two deadlines to pay the fund €1.6bn ($1.8bn) in debt interest on loans it had already received. Its national debt has spiraled, from 146.2% of GDP in 2010 to 179% in 2016.

On Sunday, Tsipras urged the IMF to come to a decision on whether to participate in Greece’s current bailout program after Eurozone governments approved another $10 billion loan for Greece in June.

“We can live with or without the IMF presence,” Tsipras told reporters at a trade fair in Thessaloniki. “What we cannot do is live with the IMF setting one foot in and leaving one foot out.”

Latest articles

Texas executes two people despite disabilities and innocence

Huntsville, Texas Within eight days in February, Texas executed two men, one innocent and the other disabled with serious mental illnesses, which brings Texas’s total state killings to 593 since the Supreme Court of the U.S. allowed executions to resume in 1976. Demonstration against the execution of Richard Tabler, Huntsville, Texas, Feb. 13, 2025.  WW…

Mexico’s Sheinbaum tells Trump: ‘Start with your own country’

The author is a Venezuelan soldier and diplomat who discusses the U.S. government’s use of the “war on drugs” as a pretext for intervention and exposes inconsistencies in Washington’s propaganda. Translation: John Catalinotto U.S. Capitol, 2012. Protest targets U.S. ‘war on drugs’ as poison to Mexico. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum made this statement — “Start…

Belgian workers march against government’s austerity plans

Home » Global » Europe » Belgian workers march against government’s austerity plans A tidal wave of demonstrations across Belgium on Feb. 13 brought out a multitude of people to protest the government’s planned austerity policies, which would be draconian for the multinational working class. Demonstration of 100,000 in Brussels on Feb. 13, 2025, opposing…

USAID Falls, Exposing a Giant Network of US-Funded “Independent” Media

The Trump administration’s decision to pause USAID funding has plunged hundreds of so-called “independent media” outlets into crisis, thereby exposing a worldwide network of thousands of journalists, all working to promote U.S. interests in their home countries. In late January, President Trump—along with help from the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk—began…

More like this

Texas executes two people despite disabilities and innocence

Huntsville, Texas Within eight days in February, Texas executed two men, one innocent and the other disabled with serious mental illnesses, which brings Texas’s total state killings to 593 since the Supreme Court of the U.S. allowed executions to resume in 1976. Demonstration against the execution of Richard Tabler, Huntsville, Texas, Feb. 13, 2025.  WW…

Mexico’s Sheinbaum tells Trump: ‘Start with your own country’

The author is a Venezuelan soldier and diplomat who discusses the U.S. government’s use of the “war on drugs” as a pretext for intervention and exposes inconsistencies in Washington’s propaganda. Translation: John Catalinotto U.S. Capitol, 2012. Protest targets U.S. ‘war on drugs’ as poison to Mexico. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum made this statement — “Start…

Belgian workers march against government’s austerity plans

Home » Global » Europe » Belgian workers march against government’s austerity plans A tidal wave of demonstrations across Belgium on Feb. 13 brought out a multitude of people to protest the government’s planned austerity policies, which would be draconian for the multinational working class. Demonstration of 100,000 in Brussels on Feb. 13, 2025, opposing…