Even voices that are friendly towards Greece say that negation of the memorandum is not an option. 17.09 Romania has ratified the EU's fiscal treaty after the senate gave its green light, the president of the upper chamber Vasile Blaga said. French President Francois Hollande has vowed to re-write the treaty, a move that Germany strongly opposes. 16.59 Fitch has placed Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank and Hellenic Bank's long-term ratings on negative watch. Cyprus is heavily exposed to Greece. 16.38 German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble: "The euro has been a more stable currency than the deutschmark." 16.33 European markets have closed. The FTSE 100 rose 0.9pc, the CAC rose 0.8pc, the DAX rose 1.1pc, the IBEX fell 0.8pc and the MIB lost 0.3pc. 16.31 The EU is to speed up payment of €939m in development aid to Spain. 16.29 Greece's centre-right leader, Antonis Samaras, won't allow his country to be "dragged out of Europe." His goal is to keep Greece in the euro and to form a patriotic, pro-European front. He adds: Greece can be saved, but we have to change policy. 16.25 Moscovici says eurobonds will be a topic when EU leaders meet in Brussels on May 23 16.22 Linda Yueh at Bloomberg: 16.15 Pierre Moscovici has said Schaeuble's political career is an "inspiration." He adds that France is fully committed to bringing country's deficit below 3pc of GDP by 2013, and to balance budget in 2017. He follows Schaeuble in reiterating that Greece must stick to its commitments. 16.09 German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says he has held "very good" talks with French counterpart Pierre Moscovici. Schaeuble added that Europe can't advance without German-French unity. Once again he says that Europe wants Greece to stay in the euro, and France and Germany will do everything for the debt-stricken country. 15.38 Mohamed El-Erian, chief of the world's largest bond fund manager Pimco, has told Bloomberg that Europe should begin fearing the worst over Greece: A Greek exit will be expensive and messy, but it's probably inevitable and therefore we should plan for it. 15.31 Here's US President Barack Obama and "friends" at the G8: The summit has so far failed to give markets the reassurances they need on growth and the eurozone debt crisis. 15.22 Bankia, the nationalised Spanish bank which had to reassure savers last week to fend off a reported run on its deposits, needs to strengthen its capital defenses by as much as €7.5bn the country's economy minister has said. The news follows calls from French President Francois Hollande to recapitalise Spanish banks with European backing. 15.04 JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon says that "a Greece default is not the problem, Greece leaving the euro is the problem." 14.59 Alexis Tsipras has added that the Greek bailout terms are "barbaric and ineffective." He says dilemma at election is not between euro or drachma but between catastrophe and hope. Tsipras: "Hell can't be negotiated; [bailout] memorandum is Hell. 14.53 In US markets, which have just opened: Dow +0.2pc S&P 500 +0.3pc Nasdaq +0.1pc Facebook shares have fallen 11pc so far to below IPO price of $38. Company now worth less than $100bn. Zynga taking a hit, too. 14.51 Quick update on the markets: 14.41 The Bank of England Court has commissioned reviews on the "provision of Emergency Liquidity Assistance in 2008/9," "the Bank's framework for providing liquidity to the banking system as a whole" and "the Monetary Policy Committee's forecasting capability." Results due in October. 14.38 Greek Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who has threatened to tear up the bailout agreement if his party wins elections next month: Greek experiment may be exported to other nations. Tsipras has added that a Greek exit would destroy the euro area. However, Greece is a "sovereign state and makes its own decisions." 14.33 Linda Yueh at Bloomberg: 14.22 Commerzbank, the second-largest bank in Germany, has warned that the eurozone debt crisis may push the US Federal Reserve into QE3. 14.15 According to a Reuters poll, 14 of 22 money market traders say Greece will not leave the euro by the end of 2013. 14.11 France has sold €2bn of 49-week bills at a marginal rate of 0.170pc. 14.00 Record euro short of $27.7bn. Shorts now outnumber long positions by six to one. 13.49 Private Eye has come up with this apt cartoon: 13.25 Ian Guider, business editor at Newstalk, has tweeted on Irish central bank governor Patrick Honohan: 13.15 The Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has dissected the myths of a Greek exit from the euro: As for Greece, let us expose all these empty threats for what they are. Greece can leave the euro without being thrown to the wolves. It can avert disaster. Once it has lanced the boil and restored a viable exchange rate, rich Greeks will bring back their capital. The Chinese will invest, so will the Russians, so indeed will the Germans - particularly the Germans. Devaluation crises are two a penny. They happen all over the world, very frequently. We have reams of clinical data and the verdict is that countries usually recover quickly. There may be hyperinflation if the Greeks screw it up but that would be an unforced error. They can impose capital controls to prevent a terms of trade shock and a drachma overshoot. They are already just 1pc shy of a primary budget surplus so it is far from clear why the government machinery would collapse. The IMF is there to help manage the transition. That is what the IMF is for. It is possible - perhaps likely - that Greece would be growing briskly again within 18 months, led by a tourist boom and by import substitution as local manufacturing rebounds. 13.12 European Council President Herman van Rompuy is holding a dinner to discuss "growth and jobs across the EU": 12.58 Greek socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos says he has a specific plan for bail-out regeneration. 12.55 The Bank of Greece "adamantly refutes a press report in a Sunday newspaper referring to alleged plans to restrict deposit withdrawals and impose capital controls." The denial comes after rumours the debt-stricken country will be forced to introduce such measures to prevent capital flight and a banking collapse. 12.52 Time for an update on the markets: 12.25 Meanwhile, over in the UK, Business Secretary Vince Cable has told The Sun's employment event that private sector firms have created 630,000 jobs in the past two years. 12.06 The Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels: Meanwhile, the EU has said it is not aware of talks over ESM directly recapitalizing banks. 11.55 EU says Eurostat experts to seek clarification on Spanish deficit. 11.53 French President François Hollande: It would most probably be desirable to have a recapitalisation [of Spanish banks], and it would most probably be necessary that this recapitalisation takes place through mechanisms of European solidarity. Time for Europe to dip into its pockets again? Maybe not, as Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy hit back: If he said that, it must be because Mr Hollande has information that we don't have. Therefore, I don't think Mr Hollande said that because, logically, he doesn't know how the Spanish banks are. 11.47 I've stumbled across the website of the "Banknote Printing Works of the Bank of Greece." Could come in handy for the country soon. 11.37 Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos has forecast a further contraction of 0.3pc in GDP between April and June. 11.23 And here's a hat-trick of pro-euro view. Greece's centre-right leader, Antonis Samaras, believes Greece must stay in the euro and needs growth measures. 11.19 Executive ECB board member Joerg Asmussen has said that the bank's "preference is that Greece remains in the eurozone. That's the Plan A, that's what we're working on. Asked whether the central bank also had a "plan B," Asmussen replied: "There's already been criticism that there is none. But as soon as you start talking about 'plan B' or 'plan C' then 'plan A' is automatically thrown out of the window. 11.13 Bill O'Neill, chief investment officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Merrill Lynch, has told Bloomberg that he doesn't think Greece will leave the euro. We don't think Greece will walk away, even if the result after the June 17 election is difficult for the pro-bailout parties. We don't think they will deliberately step away from the bailout. There will be a process of negotiation in a worst-case scenario, but we don't believe a Greek exit is going to happen. 11.04 Reuters has reported that the failed talks to form a coalition in Greece on May 17 were "a complete madhouse." "Gentlemen, we are finished," said the patrician President, calling an abrupt halt to two hours of baiting and cat-calling between furious Greek politicians. I'm starting to get upset myself now. We are finished. "It was a complete madhouse," a source at the socialist PASOK party told Reuters after their leader, Evangelos Venizelos, returned from the May 17 showdown. The discussion was unbelievable. A shoe shiner tries to keep warm next to an hourglass graffiti in Athens Reuters also offered an insight into what Brussels thought of the failed talks. "Pythagoras didn't manage to square the circle and God knows these guys don't know how to either," said one EU diplomat, echoing widespread sentiment in European capitals. The Greeks seem to have no understanding of the seriousness of their predicament and that is a great source of frustration. There's a breaking point and I think we're getting close to it. 10.55 Ed Conway at Sky has noted that Britain has the highest property taxes in Europe, at 4.2pc of GDP 10.49 Spanish Treasury minister Inigo Fernandez de Mesa believes there is no other way forward for his country but to cut its deficit; while Germany has again rejected the idea of eurobonds. 10.30 Adam Posen, the Bank of England policymaker who has called for more quantitative easing ahead of is departure from the MPC in August, said today that some eurozone banks need more capital. Speaking at a conference in Tokyo, he said European governments had not implemented steps they knew were necessary for the banking system and that governments should not be afraid to nationalise banks. 10.25 What is giving markets a lift this morning? Good news from China it seems. Over the weekend, Premier Wen Jiabao called for for additional efforts to support growth in China. We should continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy while giving more priority to maintaining growth. Wen said the central government will continue to strengthen and improve macro control efforts, carry out fine-tuning, boost domestic consumption and stabilise external demand, according to the state news agency Xinhua. Chinese exports rose by 4.9pc in April, barely half the rate which economists had forecast, while imports fell far short of expectations. In addition foreign direct investment slid lower in the first four months of 2012. The numbers, released last week, pointed to slower growth for China in the face of external headwinds that pushed economic growth in the first quarter down to 8.1pc, the slowest pace in almost three years. 09.55 Turning to our own weak economy for a moment, a paper from the Taxpayers' Alliance and the Institute of Directors out today has called for a flat 30pc rate of income tax in the UK. Tim Ross reports: A 400-page report from company directors and economists called for Britain's "extraordinarily complex and punitive" tax system to replaced with a "simple" 30% flat rate of income tax. The "single income tax" would allow workers to keep thousands of pounds more of their earnings to spend in the high street and make the UK a global "hub" for trade, the 2020 Tax Commission said. The commission, comprised of 30 political and economics specialists, also recommended cuts to fuel duty and the abolition of National Insurance and stamp duty. The recommendations were released amid concern over Britain's stalling economy and vulnerability to the growing crisis in the eurozone. The report from the 2020 Tax Commission was backed by the Institute of Directors and the Taxpayers" Alliance campaign group and followed an 18 month inquiry. However, Telegraph commentator Jeremy Warner gives the idea short shrift: 09.25 An intriguing and complex option for Greece has been suggested by bankers at Deutsche Bank - the 'geuro'. Faisal Islam, economics editor of Channel 4 News, explains it: 09.20 The European markets are staging a smal rally this morning, recovering from earlier lows: