Germany, with its own state debt already above EU regulations, is preparing to grit its teeth and back a plan to bail Greece out. The alternative would be to call in the International Monetary Fund to create a program to help Greece. But that would mean losing face, as Daniel Korski, Senior Policy Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Deutsche Welle. "It would be very damaging for the EU if Greece had to rely on the IMF," he said. "It would send a signal that the solidarity upon which the Maastricht project was built no longer exists. The EU is in a bind: if it doesn't handle this crisis well, the pressure on the euro increases, and huge questions will be brought to the fore about the entire European project."

IMF funding is intended as an aid to poor countries. Three EU countries - Hungary, Latvia and Romania - already receive IMF money at the moment, but they are all outside the eurozone. EU leaders are afraid that allowing a eurozone country to receive IMF funding would damage Europe's political credibility.

The article goes on to ask two more think-tankers (CfEPS, Bruegel), with oppoesed opinion.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}