The euro is stronger and more united than its detractors suggest. The ill winds that had stood on the Acropolis in the wake of the crisis in Dubai, have subsided in 48 hours. Jean-Claude Trichet on Thursday expressed "confidence" in the fact that the Greek government would take "appropriate action". Two days earlier, Jean-Claude Juncker had swept a backhander fears of default on public debt: "This bankruptcy scenario is totally absurd, Greece is not and will not be bankrupt. The European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Joaquin Almunia, was equally supportive: "The problems of Greece are also the problems of the eurozone."

In simple words, but that totally defused suspicion.The risk premium had risen sharply to 215 basis points (rate differential between bonds of Greece and those of the German state), it fell to 169 points, level "before Dubai. And yet the situation in Athens is still as "worrying", according to the finance ministers of the European Union, during their Tuesday's Ecofin. They refer to the three records from Greece: a deficit that will reach 12.7% of GDP in 2009, government debt represents 113% of GDP and an external payments deficit of almost 7% of GDP.

A seemingly hopeless position, but the drama of recent days has shown in vivo that Greece had spoiled for choice to find a good Samaritan, of the four following mechanisms.

• Solidarity partners of the euro area

There is no formal "financial instrument to address a funding crisis to one of the members" of monetary union, as noted by Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of the Brussels think tank Bruegel. The Maastricht Treaty is actually contradictory in this regard. On the one hand, it prohibits salvage procedure (bail out) debts of a State (Article 104B). On the other, it provides "due to exceptional events (…) to grant, under certain conditions, Community financial assistance" (Article 103a), as noted by Sylvain Broyer, an economist at Natixis.

• Insurance Fund

Unlike Dubai, which is not a member of the International Monetary Fund, except indirectly through the United Arab Emirates, Greece "contributor" itself to the insurance company what the IMF.But everybody recognizes, and Jean-Claude Trichet first, even if it has never publicly admitted he is de facto ruled a country in the euro area do call to global solidarity that is the IMF . This would be an admission of political weakness. The Minister of Finance, George Papakonstantinou, was also quick to declare that he had no intention of doing so. Able to recall how he was entitled.

• China, deus ex machina

The U.S. agency Dow Jones Newswire has revealed that Athens was in talks with Chinese banks to sell their 25 billion euros of securities of the public debt. The Prime Minister, George Papandreou, was even in the negotiations. Nothing extraordinary in themselves: the U.S. Treasury and Agency France Tr?sor spend their time doing the same thing.More disturbing, the Chinese authorities to extend the benefit of investing $ 5 billion made last year in the port of Piraeus by Cosco Pacific (Hong Kong).

• A significant challenge for the euro area

"If the deterioration of the Greek debt continues, we will find ourselves in the terrifying position of being unable to obtain cash, because the ECB will not accept our securities as collateral," said this week the Governor of the Bank of Greece George Provopoulos. A technical way, but convincingly, to describe the systemic risk to the Greek banks, which would meet all the carpets. A "small Lehman" in Greek? A good reason at least to encourage Europeans to stick together.