On Monday afternoon, leaders of the eurozone as well as leaders of the rest of the European Union were locked into following the progression and eventual outcome of the meeting between Greece and the rest of the monetary union’s Finance Ministers.

In the end, the outcome was pretty much as expected. Impasse. But the rhetoric was not brutal. In essence, Greece is asking for more time – a bridging loan to get its act together. It is not yet asking for a complete withdrawal of the bailout conditions, nor is it refusing to pay its debts.

At the same time, eurozone countries have softened their stance and have agreed that Greece can have time – provided it settles its dues. This is also the position that Malta is taking. Over the past couple of weeks, the rhetoric was ramped up by the EU, mostly in response to the stinging threats that were made by Syriza in the run up to the Greek elections.

The eurozone is focused on showing that the currency union is permanent and that people have to stick to the rules, but at the same time it cannot ignore the values of European solidarity. Greece and its people cannot carry on the way they are. It is not the sick man of Europe, it is worse than that. Greeks have been pushed to the very limits with its economy being a quarter smaller than what it was before the crisis struck.

At first, Germany was rigid and said that it could cope with a Greek exit. But the truth is different. Although contagion risks would not be as high as 2012, there could be very serious consequences to the European and world economy if a member of the eurozone were to drop out. Credibility would be shattered and the euro would take a hammering in the exchange and trade markets.

In addition, austerity is still in place in many countries around Europe and within the eurozone. What current leaders are also wary about is the spread of the Syriza effect where people simply say they have had enough and vote for the party which vows to get rid of austerity.

In all this, however, there is also the anomaly which is Ireland. Somehow, the Celtic Tiger got it right and has moved on in the right direction. But that is another story.

And so, Greece has to tone down its demands and Europe has to further soften its stance if agreement is to be reached by the end of the week. If there is no agreement, Greece would default and would not have the money to service its banks and infrastructure.

But as the enigmatic Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis put it, he expects the EU to function as it normally does and manage to hammer out a deal which is acceptable to all, despite everything looking like a locked down impasse. We hope he is right, taking Greece out of the eurozone, especially at this delicate time with the constant threat of terror and invasion by migrants, would have massive repercussions on raison d’etre of the eurozone and the EU as a whole.