Finland Sees Greek Eurozone Exit, Preparing for Breakup

With more signs showing that Greece is heading toward an exit from the Eurozone of the 17 countries using the euro as a currency, Finland says it’s preparing for the worst and putting together an operational contingency plan if it that leads to the financial bloc falling apart. European leaders must prepare for the possibility that the Eurozone could break up, Finland’s Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja told Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
“It is not something that anybody – even the True Finns (a Eurosceptic opposition party) – are advocating in Finland, let alone the government. But we have to be prepared,” Tuomioja was quoted as saying. “Our officials, like everybody else and like every general staff, have some sort of operational plan for any eventuality.”
He added: “This is what people are thinking about everywhere,” said Tuomioja. “But there is a consensus that a Eurozone breakup would cost more in the short-run or medium-run than managing the crisis.” The article also quoted Timo Soini, head of the Finns Party who said Finnish taxpayers were angry. “There are no rules on how to leave the euro, but it is only a matter of time. Either the south or the north will break away because this currency straitjacket is causing misery for millions and destroying Europe’s future,” Soini was quoted as saying.
“It is a total catastrophe. We are going to run out of money the way we are going. But nobody in Europe wants to be first to get out of the euro and take all the blame,” he said. Finland, which has a veto that could be used to block any new bailout measures, has insisted on collateral from both Greece and Spain in exchange for rescue loans.
Finland’s Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, Alexander Stubb, dismissed the suggestion that his country should be preparing for eurozone breakup. “I don’t think we should be playing with fire here, suggesting the break up of the euro or detaching some members from the euro zone…I do not think that is very helpful for the overall debate,” Stubb told CNBC. “Scenario number one for the Finnish government is that the euro will continue,” said Stubb. “We’ll have a stronger euro, a more stable euro and we’ll find tighter rules for the future so that these types of crises never happen again.”
Stubb said that keeping the euro intact and not losing any members, including Greece, is paramount for the EU’s future. “I fundamentally disagreement with the statements that the breakup of the euro would not necessarily mean the breakup of the EU,” he said. “I get the feeling that people think that the euro is some kind of an extraterrestrial currency, whereby it has some kind of seventeen strange member states in it. No, it is our currency and the aim is to make it the currency of all EU countries, save those who have an opt out.”
Since Greece began receiving bailout loans two years ago to prop up an economy failing because successive governments put hundreds of thousands of needless workers on the payroll in return for votes, there have been repeated predictions that the country would fail and bring down the Eurozone with it. And despite two years of punishing austerity measures in return for rescue loans, Greece’s debt has again risen.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, in a desperate bid to keep the economy from collapsing, is going to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande next week to explain his plans to cut $14.16 billion in spending so that the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) will release more loans.
(Sources: Kathimerini, Reuters)