The sovereign debt crisis currently gripping Greece could spread as far France, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders warned in an interview published Sunday on the website of French newspaper La Tribune, according to dpa. "If Greece was to be the first country to default, eyes would turn to other countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, maybe Belgium but also France, given its deficit and debt levels. We don't know where the contagion would stop," he said. Ireland and Portugal, along with Greece, have already been bailed out by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Spain, Italy and Belgium were listed as possible future victims of contagion by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker on Saturday. Reynders, whose remarks were published as eurozone ministers were locked in crisis talks in Luxembourg to avoid an imminent Greek default, is the first EU official to include France in the danger group. In a remarkable bout of self-criticism, Reynders also said, "Europeans are partly responsible for the situation" because they let Greece into the eurozone in 2001 despite knowing that Athens had cheated on its public accounts. "We knew that their statistics were false. I was presiding the European Union at the time," Reynders said, referring to Belgium's stint at the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2001.
