Brussels, 04/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The chair of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, is certain that Europe will start finding a solution this year to the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone, which will remain in its current form with its current member countries. Speaking on Wednesday 4 January on German TV channel NDF, he said he thought that this year would be make-or-break for the euro, and by the end of the year decisions will have been taken that will bring the eurozone close to its aim of ensuring a 17-nation eurozone. He said work was currently in progress on a second aid programme for Greece and a budget treaty.
Juncker, who is Luxembourg's prime minister, said that a return to the drachma is not an option for either Greece itself or the eurozone as a whole, reacting to comments by a Greek government spokesperson on 3 January that Greece might have to leave the eurozone if it is not possible to finalise the second
bailout package (which includes private sector involvement). Vassilis Rapanos, who chairs the board of the Greek Central Bank and the Greek Interbank Federation, said that Greece would either stay in the eurozone and cut the living standards of all Greek citizens, or it would leave the eurozone, which erases decades
of progress. (MB/transl.fl)