The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers

The Toronto Star –on the EU's fumbling over Greece

European leaders were slow to act on the danger and now Greece's fiscal crisis risks going viral. It has morphed into a major test of Europe's political credibility, with global implications. And Canadians, like everyone else, are exposed. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney warned that Athens' problems borrowing money to service its heavy debt could hurt growth here by driving up interest rates and suppressing demand for our exports.

Yet despite the risk, European leaders fiddled as Athens and the euro burned. From Greece, the contagion has spread to debt-saddled Portugal and Spain, and it threatens others. Greece alone may need up to $160 billion over three years to prevent it from defaulting on its debt payments. Ultimately, it may take $800 billion to bail out Europe's weaker economies. ...

Prime Minister George Papandreou's government and Greece's profligate spending bear much of the blame. The debt has ballooned to $370 billion because of high defence spending, subsidies to industry and unaffordable civil service salaries and pensions. Greeks pay nowhere near the taxes needed to avoid a deficit that is four times the European Union limit, and many still balk. They are protesting "savage" pay cuts and freezes, tax hikes and service cuts.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel also let the crisis deepen. Fighting an election, she has balked at forking out Germany's $30 billion share of the bailout because voters grumble that Greece is a "bottomless pit for German taxpayers." She should have made the case that Germany risked losing more by not helping out sooner.

Finally, the crisis has exposed institutional weaknesses in the leadership of the European Union and the European Central Bank. "Big and decisive" action was needed, the Guardian newspaper noted, "leadership of a kind that has been sorely missing."

Greece was a wake-up call. EU leaders now recognise that they must spend what it takes to restore confidence in the euro. Then they need to get their finances in order.