Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has warned that Greece cannot avoid paying the country's enormous debt to Europe.
Mr Nicholson said:
"I have every sympathy with the ordinary people of Greece in the critical austerity plight they are now living through, but if the Athens government was to default, what message would it send to other countries that have faced similar economic problems?"
"The stark truth is that Greece never should have been in the Euro, but the European elite at the time their entry was ratified, massaged the figures and created a false impression.
"The Greek people are now paying a very heavy price and perhaps the sensible thing for the Greek government to do would be to leave the Eurozone and plough an independent economic pathway.
"Whatever way this economic mess is sorted, and there has to be a solution, the consequences will inevitably impact on countries both inside and outside the Eurozone."