LUXEMBOURG/ATHENS (Reuters) – Top finance officials of the euro zone’s biggest economies met to discuss Greece’s debt crisis on Friday and Athens denied a media report that it was considering whether to leave the bloc.
Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of euro zone finance ministers, said the meeting in Luxembourg was attended by ministers from Germany, France, Italy and Spain. He said there was a broad discussion of Greece and other international economic issues.
Juncker denied a report in Germany’s Spiegel Online magazine that the talks were held to discuss the possibility, raised by Athens, of Greece withdrawing from the 17-member euro zone, as well as the idea of restructuring Greece’s 327 billion euro ($470 billion) sovereign debt.
“We have not been discussing the exit of Greece from the euro area. This is a stupid idea. It is in no way — it is an avenue we would never take,” he told reporters.
“We don’t want to have the euro area exploding without reason. We were excluding the restructuring option, which is discussed heavily in certain quarters of the financial markets…”
But Juncker said a meeting of all euro zone finance ministers on May 16 would discuss whether Greece needed a further economic plan,
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