Story highlights
"Let's be clear; it was a mistake," Sarkozy, on the Euro for Greece
Europe hopes to attract private capital to supplement the €440 billion rescue fund
China welcomed the deal, but has made no mentions of contributing capital
The EU's bailout fund chief will meet with officials in Beijing and Tokyo Friday
As the dust settled after the latest agreement was struck to solve the Eurozone debt crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy admitted it had been a “mistake” to admit the stricken Greeks into the monetary union.
“Let’s be clear; it was a mistake,” Sarkozy told French television.
“Greece came into the Euro with numbers that were false and its economy was not prepared to assume an integration into the Eurozone. It was a decision that was taken in, I believe, 2001, for which we now are paying the consequence.”
Wednesday’s agreement, reached in Brussels, will slash Greek debt, recapitalize European banks and more than double the European Union bailout fund’s resources to handle future sovereign defaults.