European policymakers may come up with a package of measures that may ease the debt crisis there and steer the economy away from recession after all, an official at the International Monetary Fund said.

"There certainly are downside risks," Lipsky, the IMF's first deputy managing director, told CNBC.

"We're looking forward to the October 23 European leaders' agreement on a comprehensive package to deal with Europe's financial and economic issues."

European leaders will meet on that date to discuss ways to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts, which could trigger a deeper financial crisis that could spread across the eurozone and possibly to the U.S.

Markets are worried the crisis will throw Europe into a recession and possibly take the U.S. with it since banks here are indirectly exposed to the continent's financial woes.

Measures must include firewalls to ease the spread of shockwaves should Greece default, while future aid payments to Greece from the IMF or from the European Financial Stability Facility must include commitments to financial austerity from Athens, Lipsky says.

Everyone needs to get involved.

"What's important is there's a commitment at the leaders' level to a comprehensive package," Lipsky says.

The Greek parliament is poised to vote on fresh measures designed to comply with aid payments, and unions and other organizations aren't happy, arguing that such policies, which often include layoffs, will hurt economic growth as well as life for ordinary Greeks.

"The government is destroying its central administration and cutting away the safety net for our citizens, while dramatic cuts in pay are driving workers into poverty and depravation," the civil servants' union ADEDY says, according to the Associated Press.

"The latest measures are the deathblow for our income."