Iconcluded last week’s contribution that a Greek exit from the eurozone is not a viable option, not even for Germany. The Greek parliamentary elections have now been held and Greece may be moving towards a form of stable government that will seek to meet the commitments entered into at the time the bailout was agreed to, while negotiating the deadlines that have been set.

The ultimate objective shall be for Greece to remain a member of the eurozone. Unfortunately, the radical left party does not share these policies and has promised opposition not just in Parliament but also in the streets.

Thus a Greek exit from the euro is not expected to happen any time soon, if it does happen.

In the meantime, earlier this week the leaders of the G20 – the group of the 20 leading economies in the world and which collectively represent almost 90 per cent of global income – met in Mexico. The better performing economies (referred to as Brics – Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa) have pledged to make more funds available to the International Monetary Fund for eventual use in support of some members in the eurozone, but have stated that they want more vigorous action to resolve the eurozone crisis.

Moreover US President Barak Obama has piled on the pressure on the EU (since it cannot do so just on Germany) to implement economic policies that will stimulate growth, rather than just those aimed at balancing the budget.

Another development has been the results of the elections for the French legislative assembly which gave the Socialist Party of the newly-elected President, Françoise Hollande, an absolute majority. This will make sure that Mr Hollande will push the changes he wants to introduce in France and will most certainly strengthen his hand on the European stage.

With Nicolas Sarkozy as President of France, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a strong ally in her drive for fiscal rigour across the European Union. Mr Hollande has other intentions and appears to wish to give more priority to growth and employment.

Ms Merkel has her own troubles at home with the Social Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the Upper House, telling her that they would not approve the EU fiscal compact unless she changed her policies on the EU.

The conflict within the German government became apparent last Monday when the Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, appeared to adopt a more conciliatory tone towards Greece, only to be upstaged by his female boss within a few hours, who reasserted Germany’s position that there is no space for negotiations with Greece.

Against such a scenario, there are already many who believe that the key date in June was not so much the Greek parliamentary elections, but rather the European Council which groups together the heads of government of EU member states and which will be meeting next week.

At that meeting, Germany is most likely to be alone in promoting fiscal rigour as a more important priority than economic growth. Moreover it will also come under great pressure to relent on its opposition to the Eurobonds.

Germany is hitting back by claiming that the origins of the crisis in 2008 was not the euro or the sovereign debt of some eurozone economies but the bumpy recovery in the United States.

Moreover it is also worth noting that the US and other countries have accumulated public debt and a fiscal deficit that exceeds that of the eurozone.

Thus the issue is not so much the level of public debt in the eurozone but rather the lack of any certainty on the way forward.

Economic analysts seem to have understood this very well. The news of Spain’s bank bailout rallied the financial markets for a few hours.

The same happened following the announcement of the results of the Greek elections. This is clear evidence that the strategy of promising that the eurozone will hold together, doing the minimum to address each crisis as it comes and to build a system that is sound ion the long term, is starting to sound hollow.

There is now a crying need for decisions that provides certainty. Without that certainty, it is useless debating what will happen in the long run, as by that time (with apologies to Keynes) we could all be dead.

All this should not transform us Maltese into eurosceptics. Our economy grew thanks to our membership of the EU and the eurozone. But as good Europeans, we need to support policies that provide certainty to financial markets and stimulate growth and employment.