The former Prime Minister of Italy Romano Prodi referred to the Greek public debt in an interview for Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, where he argued that it was either be reduced or the payments must be extended.
Mr. Prodi, who also served as president of the European Commission, argued that while Europe managed to “avoid the worse” in handling the Greek crisis, he noted that it acted in ‘bad way’ and stressed that Greece is not the position to pay of its debt. As such, he argued, a solution is necessary, either in the form of writing half of the debt off or extending payments ‘almost indefinitely’.
With regards to European integration, Mr. Prodi commented that “Europe must change” and cited the refugee crisis. The former Italian PM explained that Germany and France addressed the crisis as if it were a simple bureaucratic problem and as a result it quickly escalated into biblical proportions.
