germany was not fullfilling the european criteria back in 2002 or so as well, we made way more debt then allowed. The government back then made changes that the german people didnt like, and it cost the gevernment their next election, but they did what had to be done. It hurt, it changed the political picture, but it was necessary. The contries that are in high debts and on the verge of bankruptcy today unfortunatly did not have governments that selflessly took the right steps. They (the countries governments) instead either just shut their eyes and ignorered problems to keep their power or did high risk economics, i.e. pokered with their contries remaing wealth and finally lost all during the crisis.
for idiots: its NOT the peoples of the concerning countries' fault they are in debt, but their governments. The problems reach back over a decade. The requirements accompanying the loans set by the trojka are not to school, belittle or cripple the concerning countries, but to protect the loan itself from irrational or bad decision making of the in-debt countries' governments, who have proven time and time again that they will prefer going the easy shortlegged way instead of the long hard way which leeds to sustainable succes.
sry for my benglish, its not my native tongue.