From comments made by Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, one can perhaps say that the latest attempt to get Greece to implement more cuts to address its ballooning debt and deficit levels is the country’s last chance of avoiding a eurozone exit.

Dr Schäuble angered Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias by saying of the rest of the eurozone that “we can help, but we are not going to pour money into a bottomless pit”.

Greece has tried. But its governments have been hamstrung and simply have not been able to implement austerity measures and stimulate growth. In fact, the opposite is true. Greece’s economy has continued to contract and its debt and deficit levels have continued to spiral out of control.

The comment came during a three-hour conference call between the eurozone finance ministers where it was demanded that those contributing to the €130 billion bailout should have much greater oversight of Greece’s economy, in return for the loan.

But it was not all bleak. The head of the eurogroup, Jean Claude Juncker praised Greece but said more needed to be done, and demanded a full timeline for the implementation of Greece’s austerity measures.

The meeting was held in anticipation of a 2 March summit which is supposed to give the final go-ahead for the latest payment. If Greece does not pay up for a €14.5bn bond, then it will go bankrupt. To pay off that bond, it must have the bailout secured.

There was another demand which was deemed to be crucial, and that was for the leaders of the two Greek political parties to make a written promise that both would implement the cuts which are agreed on, irrespective of who wins the next general election.

Everyone can understand Greece’s frustration. The party which accelerated the catastrophic meltdown has long since descended into oblivion. But the fact of the matter is that Greece is now really on the brink. Yes, times are tough and yes, its people are the ones that are paying for it. Sadly, our Mediterranean cousins have to be touted as a perfect example of an unsustainable economy. It is going to take decades for Greece to get back into some form of competitive economic activity. And yes, Greece does deserve one last chance to redeem itself. But it must have realised, by now, that many European countries are at the end of their tether. Malta, for example, was recently downgraded along with other countries in the eurozone by Moody’s. While the ratings agency said that there were some specific issues related to Malta, the eurozone as a whole was not worth the ratings it had previously and this was why there was an across-the-board chop. Understandably, this move irked numerous countries and Malta is amongst them. The country is still registering growth and slowly but surely, the deficit is being brought down and should hopefully in the future turn into a surplus. Once that happens, we can tackle our debt levels.

When the bailouts were first mentioned, they were sold to citizens of Europe (and media people) as commercial loans. It’s becoming very clear. These are not loans at all, but handouts to keep us all afloat in a common currency.