White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today that the proposed Greek referendum reiterates the need for European leaders to “elaborate further and implement rapidly” the debt deal that they agreed to last week. 

“It remains the case that the Europeans have the capacity to deal with this crisis, and they need to implement the very important decisions they made last week to provide a conclusive resolution to it,” Carney told reporters. 

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou stunned Europe and the world last Monday night by announcing that he would hold a referendum on the bailout approved for his country last week. 

The European debt crisis is expected to be a central topic at the G20 meetings this week in Cannes, France. Carney emphasized that while the Obama administration had been “consistently engaged” with European leaders, “it is a European problem that needs to be addressed.

 ”They have the capacity to do it.  And we will continue to work with them and consult with them as they do,” he said.