the euro area. it would then be very difficult to revive the political dialogue. the eurogroup clearly considered that the proposals of the three institutions had reached the limits of what was acceptable. alexis tsipras feels that europe has not lived up to its commitments on debt restructuring … the debt question was indeed a priority for the greek government. but since 20 february the eurogroup ministers have said that this discussion would only come in a second phase and that it was necessary first of all to decide on a credible reform programme. greece has chosen to break off talks before the second part of the sequence. bis central bankers ’ speeches doesn ’ t that debt have to be restructured to make the greek economy viable? first of all, it has been adjusted three times since 2012. adding up the exchange and the buyback of private debt, coupled with the revision of the maturity and the interest rates on european loans, that represents more than 100 % of gdp in terms of debt reduction that has been approved. the greek debt burden represents 4 % of gdp, less than in italy or in spain. the question is not therefore to know if restructuring the debt is necessary but whether restructuring it a fourth time would help greece. the most important thing for the future of greece is for it to return to growth. to achieve that, it ’ s necessary to remove the rigidities of the greek economy, the tariff barriers and vested interests, all of which impede economic activity and weigh down on the purchasing power of employees, of whom much has been asked. the greek executive has never made these questions the focal point of the talks and that has been a real disappointment from a government which everyone expected to be very committed to combating vested interests. what about the funds earmarked under the second plan to support the greek banks? that money, €10. 9 billion, disappears with the stopping of the programme, on tuesday evening, as does all assistance for greece which was still available but conditional on the implementation of the programme. the ecb has maintained its emergency liquidity assistance ( ela ) to the banks. did the question of its withdrawal come up last weekend? the ecb acts within its regulatory framework. we can offer emergency liquidity assistance to the banks provided that they are solvent, the collateral submitted is of good quality, and that the ela doesn ’ t interfere with the ecb ’ s monetary policy. until sunday these conditions were met. it was found at the same time that the creditworthiness of

. the safety nets that have been put in place in recent years are playing their part. i ’ m referring to the european stability mechanism ( esm ), the banking union and the different european central bank programmes. but we must be vigilant. the ecb clearly stated on sunday that it was monitoring economic and market developments closely. should risks arise, we are ready to use the instruments we have at our disposal – quantitative easing and the omt programme – and we are even ready to use new instruments within our mandate. what could these new instruments be? the governing council of the ecb is monitoring the situation in real time. we have already said that we are ready to do more in terms of monetary policy, if necessary. until now, the ecb has always found answers to crises, within its mandate. the court of justice of the european union has validated the omt programme that was put in place in 2012 [ a bondbuying programme for countries receiving financial assistance, which has not yet been used, ed. ]. it was the court ’ s judgment that the ecb should be allowed broad discretion when choosing its instruments. in the long term, wouldn ’ t “ grexit ” risk putting on record that a country can, in fact, leave the euro area, and thus that the euro is not irreversible? if greece had to leave the euro area, that would risk casting doubt on the nature and functioning of the monetary union. that would create fragility. it would be a tragedy for greece and, moreover, for its economy. it would be a challenge that europe would have to rise to as quickly as possible, by substantially reinforcing its institutional framework. the stability of the euro area depends on a balance between responsibility and solidarity. in order to be stronger and more convincing, concrete initiatives are required to reinforce these two dimensions. what would you say to the greeks to convince them not to leave? it is vital to put greece back on a growth path, to reach a consensus in order to recreate a viable economic model for the country. total factor productivity in greece grew at a rate of only 1 % per year between 1981 and 2014, against 2 % per year in the euro area, and that happened despite the sizeable transfers greece has benefited from. to achieve this, the greek economy must remain within the single european market and be able to rely on its institutions. what ’ s more, were greece to leave, auster