World press on the Cypriot bailout (March 23, 2013)

Die Welt published an article by Martin Greive headlined 'Europa bereitet sich auf den Zypern-Kollaps vor' ('Europe is preparing for the Cypriot bailout'). The situation surrounding Cyprus has become so tense that the Eurozone is preparing for the worst - the island's bailout and withdrawal from the single currency bloc, the article reads.

The risk of such a scenario is becoming higher and higher, Greive believes. As the head of the Euro Working Group, Thomas Wieser, said, this is absolute chaos.

If the Cypriot government does not present its anti-crisis programme by Tuesday, the European bodies will not provide the island with a loan, the country's savings would run out by July and this would make Cyprus leave the Eurozone and constantly issue its own currency, which would be worth practically nothing. This would be a major catastrophe for the Cypriot economy, the author of the article writes.

In other words, the bailout would be very dangerous for the Cypriots, although there is no common view on its possible effect on the Eurozone. It clear that the EU is interested in the stability of the Cypriot banking system, but there are also those who say that it would not cause serious distress to the European economy, Greive notes.