EU Leaders To Discuss Aid To Greece Next Week

The New York Times reports:

After days of pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to finalize a second bailout for Greece, European leaders decided Friday to hold a summit meeting in the coming week to break the deadlock, giving them several more days to surmount continuing divisions on the rescue plan.

Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, announced that the meeting would be held on Thursday, six days later than originally expected — a reflection of the problems that are involved in reaching a deal.

Negotiations on the bailout have proved highly complex. Some diplomats have predicted that a plan that forces private investors to make sacrifices, as demanded by Germany, could prove more costly to taxpayers than a plan that does not.

During the 18-month-long Greek debt crisis, Germany has consistently played for time when faced with crucial decisions. With bailouts for Greece and other euro zone nations unpopular with the German public, Mrs. Merkel has appeared able to act only when confronted by a looming crisis.

This time she resisted a call from Mr. Van Rompuy for any meeting to take place before sufficient groundwork had been laid to achieve a result, arguing that moving prematurely would further destabilize the financial markets.

Initially penciled in for last Friday, the meeting was put off until Monday or Tuesday. But in an announcement made Friday via Twitter, Mr. Van Rompuy said that he had decided to call a meeting of euro area leaders for noon on Thursday.