As I undestood it, the 12 billion euro sum is going to be handed over as final part of last year's bailout, but that Greece is after a new bailout: it's this new loan, equivalent to last years, that has caused dust to be kicked up by would-be lender states.
Claude Junkers, Luxemburg's PM, says that to allow Greece to extend dates on repayments would be equivalent to Greece defaulting, which would have terrible effects on the economy of many western EU states, as many that are in a similar condition as Greece would also default.
He also says that to encourage private loans to Greece as part of the bailout is another terrible mistake.
Last year, when Greece got the first bailout, I stated then on the Forum that it will only serve to repay old debts, and that Greece will be asking for a new loan to pay off last year's debts.. and so on...next year... the year after.... the year after that...
We will never see that money again
Neither will other countries, including Germany and France. One of these two, can't remember which, is exposed to Greece for a sum equivalent to 58 billion dollars.
Britain has the equivallent to $14 billion in Greece's melting pot.
(The news is from an American editor, hence the dollars)
Once defaulting starts, then perhaps no bankrupt treasury will bother paying back their oversees debts, so the total sum of money potentially lost to the great lenders of the world - which includes Britain
- could be much greater.
This could possibly mean that British banks will again go bust, and banks in many other countries too, having lent out so much money non-stop to other countries, on a 24/7/366 lending scheme is if they were Father Christmas.