Withdrawal from the European Union

A meeting of finance ministers in Brussels on Monday ended with Greece and its lenders appearing closer to an agreement that would conclude the pending bailout review and clear the way for debt relief talks, but only in return for another key concession from Athens.

British Home Secretary Theresa May has raised the issue of EU's expansion to include candidate countries like Albania, Serbia, and Turkey.

The high ranking official of Britain's ruling Conservative Party made the remarks during her speech on the so-called Brexit - an initiative for the country's withdrawal from the EU and the upcoming June referendum on the issue.

According to a online poll conducted by ICM on the how the Britons would vote in the June 23 referendum about whether the country should stay in the EU or leave, 48 percent said they prefer Britain leave the EU, compared to the 24 percent who say they favoured remaining in the EU.

According to a poll published in German newspaper ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’ (FAZ),nearly half of the German citizens (49%) were in favour of Greece remaining in the Eurozone.

France warned Britain on March 3 that it would end border controls and let thousands of migrants move on to Britain if voters backed leaving the European Union. 

It also said it would open its arms to British-based banks wanting to flee an non-EU Britain and stay in the bloc. 

France said Jan. 21 that a British exit from the European Union would be a tragedy, but warned that Britain's demands for reform could not be met at any price.

Standard & Poor’s said Greece risks a default in a new report. Political reactions to the painful Greek bailout are the number one risk that the country faces.

The government needs to implement reforms including pension cuts and benefits and this is increasing political instability in Greece. The first evaluation of the program by the ESM has been delayed until February 2015.

No sooner did the Paris attacks occur, that speculation began to stir over what this would mean for France’s right-wing anti-immigration National Front. The ascendancy of the party has been steady, and the latest terrorist strike could help it ascend further in Paris.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stated on Thursday that he didn’t think there would be a haircut of Greek debt, but he argued that Greece is “finally on the right track.”

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble talked to Liberation newspaper in the framework of a documentary on Greece to be broadcast by ARTE.

Mr. Schaeuble stressed that the proposal for a temporary exit of Greece from the Eurozone was not a German “dictation” emphasizing, though, that if Greece had considered that as the best solution, EU would have helped Greece.