BRUSSELS: George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, has slammed the EU for displaying “timidity” in its dealings with the country as it grappled with its worst financial crisis in a decade.

In a live address to his cabinet following his return yesterday from Thursday’s emergency summit in Brussels, the normally mild-mannered leader hit out at the lack of united support from the EU, saying the foot-dragging had exacerbated the load for debt-ridden Greece which has been hammered by markets in recent weeks.

“Greece is not a political or an economic superpower to fight this alone. The EU gave political support in the last few months of this crisis, but in the battle against impressions and psychology of the market it was at the very least timid.” The union had, he said, been fragmented by multiple voices, differences and diverging statements.

“There was speculation about our country which created a psychology of imminent collapse, prophesies which risked becoming self-fulfilling,” he said. “There was a lack of co-ordination between various bodies of the union, the commission, the member states, the European Central Bank, even different opinions within those bodies.” EU leaders also failed to impress the financial markets with their tentative response to the Greek debt crisis and suffered another blow from fresh data yesterday showing the eurozone economy stagnated in the last quarter.

With governments declining to put flesh on the bones of plans to rescue Greece from sovereign default, if need be, the markets again rounded on the euro, taking it to a nine-month low against the dollar at $1.3606 yesterday morning.

Despite the market fever, however, leaders across the EU are quietly relaxed about the fall as they view the single currency as too strong. They are privately hoping for an adjustment against the dollar to

boost European exports, not least in Germany,

the world’s champion exporter until recently overtaken by China.

Germany, the eurozone’s key economy, defied expectations by posting no growth at all in the final three months of last year, meaning that the 16-country eurozone registered growth of only 0.1 per cent, raising fears of a double dip recession.

Risking accusations of complacency, several of the eurozone’s key leaders also see little threat to the currency’s stability in the Greek drama, pointing out that Greece constitutes less than 3 per cent of EU GDP. While Spain and Portugal, seen as other euro weak links, have severe problems, they are not confronting the kind of debt financing issues that the Greeks are struggling with. Spain and Portugual were not mentioned at Thursday’s EU summit.

This analysis is feeding eurozone leaders’ hopes that the Greek crisis can be contained, provided Papandreou seriously implements the outlined austerity package that is supposed to slash Greece’s budget deficit by 4 per cent alone this year.

The European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the eurozone government leaders have been insisting that Greece must meet the four per cent target.