Prime Minister George A. Papandreou of Greece emerged from a meeting with Europe’s leaders here on Wednesday pledging to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal on Dec. 4 or 5.After the talks, held before a summit meeting of the Group of 20, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and others said that they regretted that Greece had reached this point but that it was best to clear up the uncertainty.
In a news conference late Wednesday night, Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy also said that the comprehensive package to protect the euro, agreed to last week in Brussels by all 17 nations that use the currency, had to be upheld. It was up to the Greek people, they said, to decide whether they want to commit to the agreement — which includes banks’ taking a 50 percent loss on the face value of their Greek debt — and to continue to use the euro.
Mrs. Merkel said the referendum “in essence is about nothing else but the question, does Greece want to stay in the euro zone, yes or no?”
via NYTimes.com /more
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