Europe's Future: Scenarios After the Brussels Summit
With so much at stake for the entire continent, Eurozone nations are working hard to come up with solutions that could at long last resolved the prolonged economic crisis which may lead into another global recession.
The European Union is trying to mediate between the two powerhouses, Germany and France, to break a stalemate that may compel leaders to stage two summits in less than a week.
European governments may even go as far as putting together both short- and long-term bailout funds next year and doing away with a cap on bailout spending, which means releasing as much as $1.3 trillion to solve the debt problems, according to Bloomberg.
The EU is looking at different scenarios such as relying on the original option of doing a voluntary swap or resorting to hard restructuring, which calls for forcing investors to trade Greek bonds for new ones at 50 percent of their original value.
Greece has already accrued nearly 20 billion euros in raised financing requirements since an original package of 159 billion euros was laid down in the middle of this year, with the raise arising from the worsening downturn and the delays in implementing the plan.
As of Friday, Eurozone leaders were already planning to meet again on Oct. 26, following statements from both Germany and France that the parties required more time to complete a global agreement.
"The 440 billion-euro European Financial Stability Facility has already spent or committed about 160 billion euros, including loans to Greece that will run for up to 30 years," Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's has released another statement that France is among the Eurozone nations likely to be downgraded in a stressed economic scenario. The sovereign ratings of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland would also be reduced by at least two levels in either of New York-based S&P's two stress scenarios.