One of the pillars upon which the euro was established was the principle of “no bailout”. When the sovereign debt crisis hit the eurozone this principle was ditched. As Greece, Ireland and Portugal were unable to service their unsustainable levels of debt, a mechanism was instituted to supply them with the financing necessary to service their obligations. This financing was provided, supposedly, in exchange for their implementing measures that would make their, now higher, debt burdens sustainable in the future. Yet the mode adopted to resolve the debt problems of countries in peripheral Europe is, apparently, to increase their level of debt. A case in point is the €78bn ($116bn) loan to Portugal. It is equivalent to more than 47 per cent of its gross domestic product in 2010, possibly increasing Portugal’s public debt to about 120 per cent of GDP.
“不纾困”的原则曾是欧元成立的支柱之一。主权债务危机袭击欧元区时，这个原则被抛弃了。由于希腊、爱尔兰和葡萄牙无力偿付过高的债务，人们建立了一种机制，为它们提供偿债所需融资。按照设想，提供这种融资是为了换取它们采取相关措施，让它们的债务负担（现在更高了）在未来变得可持续。但用来解决欧洲外围国家债务问题的模式，显然是提高它们的债务水平。给葡萄牙的780亿欧元（合1160亿美元）贷款就是个很好的例子。这笔贷款相当于葡萄牙2010年国内生产总值(GDP)的47%还多，可能使其公共债务增至GDP的120%左右。