Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou plans to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris Friday for talks on Greece’s financial crisis.
Their meeting comes as auditors from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Union are in Athens looking at Greek efforts to slash its huge debt. The inspectors will recommend whether Greece should receive another installment of last year’s $159 billion bailout.
On Thursday, German lawmakers approved a bill to increase the size of Europe’s bailout fund to $593 billion to help for struggling eurozone countries.
The $593 billion figure was agreed to by European leaders more than two months ago. Finland approved the increase on Wednesday. Six other countries have yet to ratify it.
Some financial experts say $593 billion is still not enough in the bailout fund. They say that several trillion dollars are needed to deal with Greece’s debt woes, bailouts for Ireland and Portugal, and possible aid for Italy and Spain.