The Greek premier met France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace, a day after German lawmakers threw the ailing eurozone a lifeline by agreeing to boost the bloc’s 440-billion-euro ($590-billion) bail-out fund.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said Greece’s leader pledged to carry through with wrenching reforms to Greece’s economy despite increasing public anger and protests in the streets.
Sarkozy said Europe would support Greece in its painful economic restructuring because “the failure of Greece would be a failure of all Europe.”
He spoke after talks in Paris with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Europe’s tortured attempts to prop up the debt-choked Mediterranean country.
Describing Europe as “a family,” Sarkozy said “when one member of a family is in difficulty, the other members must act to help them.”
The Greek leader called the meeting “very constructive” and invited Greece’s European partners to send observers to verify firsthand Greece’s commitment to meeting its economic reform goals.
“I told President Sarkozy that any country who wants to can send experts to see what we are doing … the sacrifices the Greek people are making to change their country,” Papandreou said.
After meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou Friday afternoon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will travel to Germany in the coming days to speed up plans to save the euro from the spreading debt crisis.
(source: AFP, AP)
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