by Joshua Chaffin
Financial Times
November 3, 2011
The Greek prime minister has abandoned his plan for a referendum on the latest rescue plan for his country. The idea of Greece’s exit from the euro, raised in public for the first time by France and Germany, will be harder to ignore. It is a threat left hanging over Athens, but is it real?
How would Greece legally exit the eurozone?
This might require a good lawyer. Extensive as they are, the European Union treaties do not actually provide for a country leaving the eurozone. (Until now, it was taken for granted that the traffic would all be headed in the other direction).
The treaties do include a sort of emergency clause that allows the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to make proposals to deal with extraordinary events that are a threat to the single currency. So it could probably use this as a basis to draft a Greek exit, if necessary. As with all EU matters, the process would not be immediate. The other 26 member states would have to unanimously approve, as well as the European Parliament.
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