Euro finance ministries have recommended that European Union nations draw up contingency plans for Greece leaving the eurozone, according to leaked statements. Both Greece and the European Commission denied the rumors.

Reuters said three officials told it the Eurogroup Working Group (ewg), a group of experts that advise eurozone finance ministers, agreed to send this advice at a teleconference meeting on May 21.

“The ewg agreed that each eurozone country should prepare a contingency plan, individually, for the potential consequences of a Greek exit from the euro,” Reuters quotes one official as saying.

Meanwhile, the Bundesbank said a Greece exit out of the eurozone would be tough but “manageable.” The bank called for the European Central Bank’s loans to Greece to be cut. The German financial paper Handelsblatt said the bank’s statement was like “holding a gun to Greece’s head.”

Reuters also reported: “Officials said that in addition to Italy and Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria and Slovakia have also either already started, or would soon start, drawing up contingency plans.”

Banks and large businesses are also reported to be putting together contingency plans.

Citi chief economist Willem Buiter said: “The elections (on June 17) will not produce a viable government that can follow the troika plan, leading to a stalemate between the Greek government and official creditors, and to the suspension of efsf-imf funding.” This would eventually lead to Greece leaving the eurozone in 2013.

Greece’s membership in the eurozone is simply not sustainable. Euro leaders may be able to prop it up a little longer, but Greece’s inevitable exit will be part of a chain of events that will completely change Europe.