UK PRESS: German chancellor Angela Merkel said a bailout for Greece
should not be on the agenda of this week’s EU summit in Brussels, The
Guardian reports. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission president
had called for the euro-zone countries to use the two-day meeting to
agree a co-ordinated package of loans that could be quickly put in place
if the Greek government decided it needed help to reduce its ballooning
budget deficit. But Merkel said in a radio interview that Greece was not
in danger of default and aid for the country would not be a topic at the
summit, which starts on Thursday. “There’s no looming insolvency,”
Merkel was cited as saying. “I don’t believe that Greece has any acute
financial needs from the European community and that’s what the Greek
prime minister keeps telling me.”