(Reuters) – The European Commission and the European Central Bank are working on an emergency scenario in case Greece has to leave the euro zone, EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said in an interview published on Friday.

The comments would appear to be the first time that an EU official has confirmed the existence of contingencies being taken for a possible Greek exit from the currency bloc. Speculation has been rife about such plans, but their existence has not been confirmed.

“A year and a half ago there may have been the danger of a domino effect,” he said in an interview with the Belgium’s Dutch-language newspaper De Standaard.

“But today there are, both within the European Central Bank and the European Commission, services that are working on emergency scenarios in case Greece doesn’t make it.”

(Reporting By Ben Deighton. Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)