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"The Board of Directors of the European Central Bank and its supervisory mechanism would be less concerned if capital flight from Greek banks were under control to prevent their destabilisation," reads the German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, referring to a source of the financial institution in Frankfurt. To recall that the amount that individuals will be allowed to withdraw will be 300 euro per week, as was in the case of Cyprus.
    According to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, 20 billion euro in deposits were withdrawn from Greek banks between December 2014 and mid-February 2015. Yesterday the Board of Directors of the European Central Bank extended by two weeks the funding to Greek banks through the Emergency Liquidity Assistance and increased by 3.3 billion euro the amount of liquidity provided, which is much lower than what the Bank of Greece had requested.
    Various sources make it clear that yesterday's meeting in Frankfurt was stormy and that the Board of Directors was quite divided in its opinion. For example, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann was firmly against increasing the amount of liquidity to Greek banks.
    We recall that a few days ago the Bundesbank had openly warned Greek banks not to buy state bonds with the money provided by the Emergency Liquidity Assistance. Other members of the Board of Directors of the European Central Bank had asked for an assessment of the solvency of Greek banks, because this mechanism can only provide liquidity to banks with proven solvency.
    Meanwhile, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1981) proposed to Greece a friendly exit from the euro zone. His argument is that the only way for Greece to solve its problems is by returning to an independent currency, which it can devalue. "The main question is whether the Greek economy can return to growth and prosperity with such a strong currency like the euro. The answer is clearly negative," said d'Estaing to the newspaper Les Echos. According to him, this option should be considered soberly and calmly, in the interest of Greece itself without being perceived as a failure of the euro zone. The Former French President emphasizes that the place of Greece is in the European Union and that if it abandoned the euro nothing fatal would happen. It would be side by side with the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Czech Republic.