EC denies Greek exit strategy plan ATHENS, Greece, May 18 (UPI) -- The European Commission Friday said it is determined to keep Greece in the eurozone and isn't working on an exit plan. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht was quoted by a Belgian newspaper as saying the EC and European Central Bank were working on an emergency plan in the event Greece drops the euro and defaults on its obligations, ekathimerini.com reported. "We completely deny that we are working on any such emergency plans," a representative told Market News International. We are concentrating all our efforts on supporting Greece and keeping it in the eurozone. German economist Dirk Schiereck of the Technical University in Dortmund warned the Greek banking system could collapse if people keep pulling money out as uncertainty continues. "When a lot of people withdraw their savings, however, banks end up with a financial gap which they have to cover," Schiereck said. Banks normally could borrow funds to cover obligations from the central bank but the central bank in Athens is short of funds. "There is an acute danger that the banks would become insolvent and collapse," Schiereck told Deutsche Welle. Alexis Tsipras, the head of Greece's Radical Left group says, said Greece would repudiate its debts if it is denied funding. "Our first choice is to convince our European partners that, in their own interest, financing must not be stopped," Tsipras told The Wall Street Journal. If we can't convince them -- because we don't have the intention to take unilateral action -- but if they proceed with unilateral action on their side, in other words they cut off our funding, then we will be forced to stop paying our creditors, to go to a suspension in payments to our creditors. Almost 54 percent of adults surveyed after the election said Greece should continue to carry out reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund, European Union and European Central Bank to stay in the eurozone. Greece's economy, in its fifth year of recession, is forecast to shrink 4.7 percent this year.