Europe's worst kept secret

Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker has revealed Europe's worst kept secret on the sidelines of the last IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington.

Juncker said:

"It was obvious that one day Greece would have to face this kind of problems, and I knew that problems would arise because we - the French, the Germans, ECB President Trichet, the Commission and myself - had been discussing the perspectives of what was not at that time known as so-called Greek crisis".

However, for reasons he didn't specify, EU leaders still decided to keep the whole thing quiet and hoped for a miracle.

Juncker then went on to say:

"The Greek crisis could have been avoided, but not starting last year, starting two or three decades ago".

Hold on. So Mr. Juncker is suggesting that Greece's problems existed well before the country was allowed to enter the eurozone in 2001? What a shocker!

In truth, the Luxembourgian is not the first one to "confess" that Greece didn't really qualify to join the single currency. Over the last few months, former European Commission President Romano Prodi, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and EU Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht have all admitted that Greece was literally "allowed to cheat" on its accounts in order to comply with the Maastricht criteria and therefore join the euro.

The consequences are well known. Really, shouldn't these politicans be held to account?