The Greek Parliament has passed the second tranche of the Euro Group’s demands before bailout negotiations can begin. That this has happened is in part due to the Greek desire to stay in the eurozone and in part to the remarkable political leadership of Alexis Tsipras. It is now critical to the future of the euro that Germany modifies its position to ensure that an agreement is reached which offers a doable path for Greece’s economy to return to growth and that the debt mountain will be reduced to a level which can credibly be serviced.
The Euro Group now needs to recognise that it has a significant responsibility to sort out its currency. At present anybody will agree that Greece’s current position would be infinitely better if the euro had never been heard of. The same for Italy, Spain and Portugal. That is not a good report.