Τό άρθρο στούς NYT είναι εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρον...Κιαυτό γιατί περιέχει αλήθειες πού ενώ είναι κοινός τόπος σέ κατ' ιδίαν συζητήσεις δέν λέγονται ποτέ δημόσια στήν Ελλάδα..
Ξεχωρίζουμε τρία (απο τα πολλά) ενδιαφέροντα σημεία..
1) Οτι η όλη διαδικασία τού πήγαινε έλα διαφόρων παραγόντων τής ΕΕ καί ο ιταμός τρόπος πού αντιμετωπίζουν τούς Ελληνες υπουργούς θέτει ένα θέμα εθνικής κυριαρχίας...
Γράφουν οι NYT.
"αυτό που διακυβεύεται είναι το κατά πόσον οι 16 χώρες που μοιράζονται το ευρώ μπορούν να κάνουν ένα αλλοπρόσαλλο κράτος μέλος, με μια ασθενική οικονομία, να λάβει δραστικά μέτρα για να μειώσει το δημόσιο έλλειμμα, χωρίς να προσφύγει στο ΔΝΤ ή να προκληθεί κοινωνική εξέγερση. Αυτό συνεπάγεται μια άνευ προηγουμένου κηδεμονία της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης για τα οικονομικά ενός κυρίαρχου Κράτους"
2) Οτι οι διάφορες δηλώσεις τών παραγόντων τής ΕΕ πιθανότατα γίνονται μετά απο συνεννόηση ώστε να χρησιμοποιούνται ως άλλοθι για να περνάει η κυβέρνηση πιό εύκολα τα μέτρα της..
Γράφουν οι NYT.
"Πηγή πολύ κοντά στόν κ. Παπανδρέου μάς είπε ότι η πίεση απο τήν ΕΕ είναι χρήσιμη γιατί μας δίνει άλλοθι για τα επόμενα μέτρα πού θα πάρουμε αφού όλοι στήν Ελλάδα θεωρούν τήν ΕΕ την τελευταία σανίδα σωτηρίας"
3) Οτι στήν Ευρώπη δέν πιστεύουν ότι ο Παπανδρέου θα μπορέσει να κάνει αυτά πού λέει..
Διαβάστε όλο το άρθρο...
INSIDE EUROPE
The E.U's Big Challenge: To Bring Greece Into Line
By PAUL TAYLOR
Published: January 11, 2010
PARIS — Greece’s debt crisis is the biggest credibility test the euro zone has faced since the single currency was created.
At stake is whether the 16 countries that share the currency can make a wayward member with a weak economy take drastic measures to cut its budget deficit without calling in the International Monetary Fund or setting off a social revolt.
This will involve an unprecedented level of European Union tutelage over a sovereign state’s finances, but without the I.M.F.’s leverage of disbursing or withholding loans in portions.
The European policy instruments are blunter and would be economically harmful to apply.
Unless Athens takes swift action to cut spending and raise revenue, it risks costly E.U. sanctions and further downgrades by credit ratings agencies that would sharply increase its borrowing costs and deepen its economic recession.
E.U. officials say Greece has only itself to blame.
The country cheated its way into the euro in 2001 by fiddling its statistics, and failed to curb its budget shortfall in the boom years. It will have the highest debt level as a proportion of economic output in the euro zone this year.
Years of concealment led to the admission last October by the newly elected Socialist government that the 2009 deficit would be a stunning 12.7 percent of gross domestic product, more than twice the level forecast by its conservative predecessor.
“Because of the history, there is not much sympathy out there for Greece,” said a European Commission official involved in the drive to enforce fiscal discipline. “There is a very strong determination to apply the rules.”
Prime Minister George Papandreou has promised to reduce the deficit to the E.U. ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, starting with a giant cut of four percentage points this year.
But financial markets and many E.U. officials do not believe Mr. Papandreou can achieve that, based on budget plans announced so far, and are pressing Athens to make deeper spending cuts.
The government is due to submit a new three-year fiscal plan to the European Commission this month and E.U. finance ministers are likely to issue a virtual ultimatum in mid-February, giving Greece four months to take corrective action or face sanctions.
Mr. Papandreou has so far rejected market pressure to cut public-sector wages and pensions, which he fears would cause social unrest in a country with a tradition of violent protest.
The government has said it will propose a pension reform to Parliament in April and a corrective budget if needed.
Euro-zone countries are determined to avoid recourse to the I.M.F. for reasons of political prestige, although Hungary, Latvia and Romania — newcomers to the E.U. and not yet in the euro zone — were all sent to the I.M.F. They also want to avoid having to bail Greece out themselves.
A European Central Bank executive board member, Jürgen Stark, a German deficit hawk, said bluntly last week that markets were deluded if they thought other member states would put their hands in their wallets to save Greece.
German and French leaders have sounded less gruff, hinting that Greece could ultimately receive help from its euro-zone partners — for a price — if its debt problems got out of hand.
“I am confident that with proper peer pressure and support from members of the euro zone, Greece will find its way back to where it should be,“ the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said last week.
Ireland, another state on the periphery of the euro zone hit hard by the financial crisis, and Latvia, outside the euro, have achieved similarly drastic deficit reductions by cutting public-sector pay and benefits. But neither has Greece’s powerful trade unions and history of civil unrest.
A source close to Mr. Papandreou, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that if Greece were to attempt such draconian cuts at once, it would face the kind of social disorder that hit many states implementing I.M.F. adjustment programs.
“We’re going to have to salami-slice our way into it,” the source said. “The E.U. pressure is helpful to provide an alibi for the next round of measures, because everyone in Greece realizes that the E.U. is our lifeline.”
The source said Mr. Papandreou would face down leftists in his Pasok party who oppose austerity but that he needed to take time to persuade non-communist public-sector trade unions that the pain was being shared fairly.
The two main sanctions that could hit Greece would be deeply counter-productive if applied.
The E.U. could force Athens to make a huge deposit with the European Commission, which would be lost as a fine if the excessive deficit were not corrected. But that would sap market confidence and deepen Greece’s economic troubles.
Further downgrades by credit ratings agencies would mean Greek government bonds would no longer be eligible as collateral in borrowing cheap E.C.B. funds, starting in 2011. That would raise government borrowing costs and hit Greek banks particularly hard but also hurt other holders of Greek debt and set off a chain reaction.
Neither measure makes economic sense. But failure to enforce the rules on Greece could harm the credibility of the euro zone.
Paul Taylor is a Reuters columnist.
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