G20 summit to begin amid ongoing drama in Europe
Steve Chiotakis: Germany’s finance minister said today Greece should stick to the original European rescue plan, and avoid the prospect of a referendum that could throw the bailout into doubt. That on the day that finance ministers and leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies are in Cannes, France, for a summit on the global economy.
David Shorr is foreign policy program officer for the Stanley Foundation, and he’s joining us now from Cannes. Hi David.
David Shorr: Morning.
Chiotakis: So Greece, of course, dominating the headlines — dominating the headlines of the meeting, too?
Shorr: The Greek referendum is just the latest wrinkle into a situation that already had a huge amount of uncertainty. But the bottom line question is: are Europeans going to be able to handle this themselves, or are they going to need help? Aside from which way Greece goes, there’s this question of how the resources to build this firewall add up.
Chiotakis: A new plan for a referendum in Greece — I know last week’s big European deal was supposed to be the solution to the debt problems. How does this new flare up — this referendum — change the agenda?
Shorr: I think they’ll still run through the longer-term agenda items that they’d planned on. But a lot of the attention is going to have to deal with the eurozone debt crisis and an effective response, because of course, the global financial markets are watching.
Chiotakis: David Shurr with the Stanley Foundation, joining us from Cannes. David, thank you.
Shorr: Thank you very much.
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