Questionable aid package

Wait a minute: Haven't we all been told that taxpayers won't have to foot the bill anymore if a bank paints itself into a corner? At least that's what we've been promised by policymakers after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the resulting global financial crisis. Back then, lenders had to keep afloat with billions upon billions of taxpayers' money.

And now some European banks are in deep trouble again, and they're to be saved with - guess what - taxpayers' money. Because that's exactly what will happen when leading lenders in Greece receive 25 billion euros ($27.7 billion) from a new rescue package that European partners are preparing for their problem child.

No trust left

The banks in question have run into massive problems also because clients have withdrawn large amounts of money from their accounts. And they've done so because their trust in politicians is limited, to put it mildly.

Those policymakers had promised to get the country on its feet again. Or maybe account holders think German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is a bad guy and wants to take away their savings. Or they simply see what cannot be overlooked: Why should a third aid package work, if two previous ones haven't really changed anything for the better in their country?

The situation is tricky indeed. Greece is a bottomless pit. And the only thing the new aid package will do is give the country some time to breathe. Just like before when two rescue programs washed a total of 240 billion euros into Greek state coffers within five years. And it was pretty similar with the 2012 haircut that whittled down Greece's debt load by 107 billion euros.

I'm pretty sure that the same old story will start anew in two or three years from now, only without Zorba the Greek. And we'll see irritated Europeans who would have preferred to solve other problems.

No Grexit, please

But what can be done? Should we really chuck the Greeks out of the eurozone and let them have the drachma again, as one renowned Munich-based economist doesn't tire of demanding in interviews? Is the grand idea of a united Europe really worth so little?

Of course the European project is not free of construction faults. But the Greek crisis helped us to understand these faults and rectify the situation. We should be willing to display solidarity and find a viable solution to the crisis.

In principle, you can understand every German lawmaker voting against a new aid package for Greece. But it's not enough to simply say "no."

Solidarity a European virtue?

We need to get out the big guns now, meaning radical debt relief or a haircut, if you like, which is a measure backed by the IMF. In Washington, many are fed up with dealing with a peripheral European nation while really poor IMF member countries need more of their attention.

A haircut is not a popular idea in Berlin, but policymakers there will know there won't be another solution in the end - only: don't call it a haircut. Giving Greece 60 years to pay back loans doesn't seem to be a brilliant idea either, as none of those deciding on it will live to see full repayments come about.

What's required is a good deal of courage to speak the truth - which could cost some lawmakers their seats in a worst-case scenario.

Greece needs to be put in a position to set up a rewarding economic system that creates profits, coupled with a functioning tax collecting system. It has to create opportunities for its own people so as to make sure people do not transfer all their money abroad. It's questionable whether this can be achieved under the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras, but that's for the Greeks to decide - who look certain to see snap elections soon.

Europe should be on its best behavior and come up with a kind of Marshall Plan. This would be the best answer to the many anti-European forces that have formed not only in Athens, but also in many other capital cities.

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