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.
“不紓困”的原則曾是歐元成立的支柱之一。主權債務危機襲擊歐元區時，這個原則被拋棄了。由于希臘、愛爾蘭和葡萄牙無力償付過高的債務，人們建立了一種機制，為它們提供償債所需融資。按照設想，提供這種融資是為了換取它們采取相關措施，讓它們的債務負擔（現在更高了）在未來變得可持續。但用來解決歐洲外圍國家債務問題的模式，顯然是提高它們的債務水平。給葡萄牙的780億歐元（合1160億美元）貸款就是個很好的例子。這筆貸款相當于葡萄牙2010年國內生產總值(GDP)的47%還多，可能使其公共債務增至GDP的120%左右。