Shift in support for Athens
 
 
 PM to have conference call with Merkel, Sarkozy after US intervention prompts EU leaders into action
    
     After yet another day of frenzied speculation about the prospects of  debt-ridden Greece in the eurozone, top European and US government  officials appeared to coordinate their efforts to douse rumors of a  default and a teleconference call was hastily arranged for this evening  between Prime Minister George Papandreou, French President Nicolas  Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The radical shift in  support for Greece followed the intervention of US President Barack  Obama, who pressed the leaders of the European Union’s larger countries  to show leadership as rumors sent global markets into a tailspin and the  pressure rose on Italy, which is largely regarded as too big to fail.
A  meeting between Sarkozy and European Council President Herman Van  Rompuy in Paris Tuesday was believed to have focused on the Greek crisis  but it was Merkel who publicly stressed the importance of concerted  action to avert a broader problem.
“We must always keep in view  that we do everything in a controlled way, that we know the  consequences, because otherwise a situation could very quickly arise in  the eurozone that none of us wants and that could have very, very  difficult consequences for us all,” Merkel was quoted as telling a  German radio station.
Her comments came a day after those by  German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, who indicated that a Greek  default should not be ruled out as an option.
The mixed messages  being sent out by the German government were the subject of scathing  commentaries in the German press Tuesday.
In Athens, Papandreou  and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos discussed the developments in  Paris, Brussels and Berlin. Ahead of his conference call with Merkel and  Sarkozy, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Papandreou is to  chair an emergency cabinet meeting. It is expected that, during the  call, Papandreou will outline his government’s timetable for an  ambitious privatization scheme and detail its plans to slash public  sector spending.
He is also expected to urge the two EU leaders to  press French and German banks into joining the private sector  involvement (PSI) arm of a second bailout deal for Greece hammered out  in Brussels in July.
                            
 
ekathimerini.com , Tuesday  September 13, 2011 (22:38)