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10/1/11

Sarkozy, Merkel to Meet as Europe Weighs Greece - by Helene Fouquet

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he’ll meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in coming days as European officials begin debating a new round in their effort to prevent a Greek default. There’s “no credible alternative” to channeling aid to Greece, Sarkozy said yesterday after meeting Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Paris.

His remarks signal the fight over an expansion of Europe’s bailout toolkit that will follow the enactment in coming weeks of the upgraded 440 billion-euro ($594 billion) European Financial Stability Facility. Euro finance chiefs will next week discuss accelerating enactment of a permanent rescue fund that provides more capital and a tool for managing defaults.

“The failure of Greece would be the failure of all of Europe,” Sarkozy told reporters. “Remember in 2008, when the U.S. let Lehman Brothers fail, the global financial system paid the price. For both economic reasons and moral reasons, we can’t let Greece fail.”

For more: Sarkozy, Merkel to Meet as Europe Weighs Greece - Bloomberg

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