"Our eurozone partners have made it clear: The choice is between staying in or getting out of the eurozone"

This quote by Lucas Papademos, the previous Prime Minister of Greece, is describing the hard choice that Greece needed to make in 2012. At the time, Greece was dealing with an extreme economic crisis and required a bailout from the European Union. The EU had made it clear that in order to receive the bailout, Greece would need to accept certain austerity procedures. This quote is recommending that Greece needed to choose in between staying in the eurozone and accepting the austerity steps, or leaving the eurozone and dealing with the effects of a default. Eventually, Greece chose to stay in the eurozone and accept the austerity measures, which assisted to stabilize the economy. This quote functions as a suggestion of the difficult decisions that nations need to make in order to ensure their financial stability.