THE EUROPEAN UNION HAS A CONTINGENCY PLAN IF GREECE LEAVES THE EURO

Eurozone countries has been discussing action plans if Greece decides to leave the 17-nation common currency bloc. Officials says that there are a number of contingency plans being prepared although they do not expect they will be needed. Finance ministers have talked about limiting the size of withdrawals from ATMs, imposing border checks, and setting up capital controls. There is approximately between $7.5 to $8.75 billion that has been withdrawn from banks in Greece in the last month. Contingency planning is underway for a scenario under which Greece leaves just to prepare for what may happen after the Greek elections on June 17th. The prior vote which was last month failed to produce a government. The chief point of disagreement was over how to handle the highly unpopular austerity measures mandated by the European Union and International Monetary Fund as part of the deal to give Greece the latest $170 billion bailout. The sentiment in Eurozone is that if one of the 17 countries is brought to collapse, the fire will become uncontrollable and will not be limited to Greece and the southern countries. It will break up the eurozone and that will not be in anyone's best interest.