Eurozone expulsion not possible under treaty: EU

(BRUSSELS) - Greece cannot be forced out of the eurozone, the European Commission said Thursday after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said such a possibility should be considered.

"Neither exit nor expulsion from the euro area is possible, according to the Lisbon treaty under which participation in the euro area is irrevocable," Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, told a news briefing.

Rutte and his finance minister Jan Kees de Jager called Thursday for the "ulimate sanction" of a country being expelled, under a proposed new regime that would place economies in deep trouble under the wardenship of eurozone partners.

"In the future, the ultimate sanction can be to force countries to leave the euro," they wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times.

Altafaj said there is "no discussion whatsoever on such an eventuality."

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is also pushing for a much tougher approach, telling his parliament that he will fight for "the necessary treaty changes so that we can act sooner and more effectively when things go wrong."

Doubts are already rising as to whether international auditors will pass new Greek budgetary revisions and so allow eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund to release the next tranche of loans to Athens this autumn.

Altafaj acknoweledged it is "not possible" to provide the funds if "strong conditionality" is not fulfilled.