German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's reluctant paymaster, doused expectations of any comprehensive solution to Greece's debt crisis at an emergency eurozone summit on Thursday. "Further steps will be necessary and not just one spectacular event which solves everything," Merkel told a joint news conference on Tuesday with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The widespread longing for a single, final solution to make the Greek crisis disappear once and for all was unrealistic, she said, as officials wrestled with complex options for involving private bondholders in a second financial rescue for the debt-stricken eurozone state.
The euro eased against the dollar after the German leader said too high demands had been placed on Thursday's talks, which was only part of an incremental series of steps to address Greece's debt and competitiveness problems.
The European currency area is facing the biggest crisis of its 12-year existence, with contagion threatening major economies such as Italy and Spain after three small members - Greece, Ireland and Portugal - needed bailouts. French European Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti confirmed late on Monday that eurozone officials were eyeing a bank tax to raise extra money to help Greece, which needs a further 115 billion euros in funding by mid-2014 on top of a 110-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout agreed last year.
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