GREECE IS JUST A SYMPTOM OF THE DISEASE THAT IS EATING AWAY AT "THE EUROPEAN PROJECT"  For whom the bells toll in Europe?

The threats and mutual accusations between Greece and its creditors happened so fast last week, that even the internet couldn't keep up. The nearing of the deadline for the repayment of Greece's debt to the IMF has led to the escalation of panic among the European authorities.

The confusion among the population has even led to protests supporting Greece's stay in the Eurozone at any cost, even though that stay is subject to new austerity measures, which dwarfs the ones in the past years.

Prime-minister Alexis Tsipras has said, in a recent interview, that "Greece's exit from the Eurozone would represent the beginning of the end for the European currency", according to an article from Kathimerini, after he accused the European creditors that "they are trying to undermine the elect government, after five years of theft".

On the other side, the most vicious attack came from the ECB and the central bank in Athens, in what could be a horribly dangerous precedent for the political involvement of the two institutions.

At the Luxemburg meeting, Benoit Coeure, member of the executive management of the ECB, said, speaking before the ministers of finance of the Eurozone that he didn't know "whether the banks in Greece would be open next week" (author's note: this week). Such statements can only confirm Tsipras' accusation, about the pressures to change the government in Athens.

Furthermore, the signal sent to the other members of the Eurozone, as well as to countries in the EU that have not yet switched to the Euro, is crystal clear: financial terror is a legitimate tool for preserving the European "cohesion" at any cost.

Aside from the foreign pressures, thinly veiled threats have come from the Central Bank in Athens, in its latest monetary policy report of June 17th, 2015.

"Completing a new agreement with our partners is of crucial importance to eliminate the immediate risks for the economy and to ensure a sustainable growth outlook for Greece", the report states, and "a failure in that regard would mean going down the path which leads to Greece's default and its exit from the Eurozone and very likely, to its exit from the EU".

These statements have led Ambrose Evans-Pritchard to write in The Telegraph that "Bank of Greece is playing with the political fire", and "the threats of being forced to exit the EU and the occurrence of an economic collapse, without a new bail-out plan, are rudimentary intimidation plays".

Syriza MPs think that the report of the Central Bank in Athens is nothing but "an attempt to spread terror", as "never has such a "monetary policy' report been published by a central bank before", according to Evans-Pritchard, a report which represents "a political attack against its own government".

According to the British journalist, "the guardians of financial stability are deliberately causing the flight of capital and are endangering the European system through their efforts to bring Greece to its knees". Ambrose Evans-Pritchard goes even further, calling Greece's debt crisis "finance's Iraq war", where "in a mind-boggling show, the ECB, the IMF and the European bailout fund have unleashed their anger against an elect government which refuses to do as they please".

"These institutions refuse to take any responsibility for the five years of mistakes that have led to the current deadlock", Evans-Pritchard further writes.

Most certainly, the other countries in the EU, especially the smaller ones, are looking at this show of force and are learning. But what? The lesson of terror and unconditional submission to the dictates of institutions have lost their democratic nature or never had in the first place? Is this the "European Project"?

In the context of the lack of progress of the negotiations, the only priority has remained preserving the banking system's appearance of solvency. The massive exit of depositor money has led to the speedier granting of the liquidity tranches as part of the ELA (Emergency Liquidity Assistance) program, as last year week's withdrawals were estimated at 5 billion Euros, according to an article by newspaper Kathimerini, of which 1.7 billion Euros have been withdrawn only on Friday, June 19th, 2015.

After an extraordinary teleconference, the ECB approved the supplementation of the ELA with 1.8 billion Euros, but there are doubts that the amount will be enough until the end of the high-level meeting of the European authorities scheduled today. The Bank of Greece has asked for the supplementation of the ELA by 3 billion Euros.

Still, minister Alekos Flabouraris said on Saturday, June 20th, 2015, that "the ECB will not allow the Greek banks to collapse, because that would create a domino effect for banks in other parts of Europe as well", Reuters writes.

"The solvency of the Greek banking system is completely dependent on the position of the ECB", Stephanie Flanders, of J.P. Morgan Asset Management told Bloomberg.

Sadly, this statement also does nothing else but maintain the confusion between a bank's liquidity and its solvency. What the ECB and Bank of Greece are doing is only intended to maintain the illusion of solvency, through massive liquidity injections.

In this context, the IMF has expressed its inflexibility concerning the repayment of the 1.6 billion Euros tranche at the end of the month, while its attitude towards Ukraine was completely the opposite, as the country received assurances that it would continue to receive funding from the IMF even in the event of a default.

The attitude of the IMF was taken under consideration by the authorities in Athens in drafting the new package of measures requested by the international creditors. In a preliminary version obtained by German daily Der Tagesspiegel, the Tsipras government is proposing, in chapter C, the refinancing of the debts towards the ECB through the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) and including the Greek government bonds in the quantitative easing program. The debt to the IMF would be refinanced and restructured by the end of 2022, also with the involvement of the ESM and the European Commission.

The flight of the deposits of the population has brought up once again the issue of instituting capital controls, but the government in Athens has denied that information. "The deposits of the population are guaranteed and the banking system is strong", the government's spokesperson said, according to online German daily Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. Of course, that kind of official interventions don't even put a bitter smile anymore on the Greeks' faces, as everyone is too tired to accuse anybody of lying anymore.

In a desperate attempt to obtain funds to pay the debts coming due this month and to extend Greece's agony, prime-minister Tsipras has once again met with president Vladimir Putin. He only got an agreement concerning the new gas main that Russia is promoting, but Kremlin officials denied the possibility of a financial aid.

It is also hard to believe that declaring the Greek public debt as "illegal, illegitimate and odious" by a Parliamentary commission, according to a principle that exists in international law, will receive due attention in today's meeting of the European leaders. The implications would be far too serious for those who promised prosperity to the citizens, but "forgot" that it can not be built through unlimited debt growth.

Today's high level meeting can have as a result the political decision to support a new haircut for Greece's sovereign debt, as Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten wrote one week ago. According to some anonymous sources, "The Troika is preparing cutting Greece's debt by 43.2%", amid the direct involvement of the US government in the negotiations, due to Greece's strategic importance in NATO and in the Europe. DWN also writes that threats and statements concerning the consequences of Greece's exit from the Eurozone are only meant to distract European taxpayers, to whom "the haircut will be presented as a success".

Any solution would be preferred to Greece's exit from the Eurozone and the European Union, and the main reason was illustrated in a piece of new published by MarketWatch.

According to data from the IMF, from the database which accompanies the periodic report World Economic Outlook, the average annual growth of the GDP/capita of the countries on the outskirts of the Eurozone was a lot higher prior to joining the monetary union.

For Greece, the median annual growth was 4% between 1980 and 1998, with the annual rate subsequently falling by almost half. Portugal, Italy and Spain performed even more poorly.

Would it be possible for Greece's exit from the European structures, amid a sovereign default, lead to the creation of the conditions conducive to achieving the prior growth rates? If yes, then every argument in favor of the European Project would vanish.

This end of the month of June 2015 would represent, according to Evans-Pritchard, "the moment when the liberal Atlantic order has lost its authority, and the European project has ceased to be a historically motivating force".

And if that happens, for whom will the bells in Greece toll if Greece gets excluded from the European "family"?