6/01/2013
We
are sending this report in order to inform you about the current economic and
social impact of the European debt crisis in Greece.
This
opinion piece presents the opinions of the authors and it does not necessarily
reflect the views of all the members of Naturefriends Greece.
Economic and social environment
Greece
is undergoing the third year of an economic depression with severe economic and
social consequences. Greece was dragged to a “Memorandum” (“mnimonio”) with
European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (the
“Troika”) in order to service its public debt which before the “crisis” was
around 120% of its Gross Domestic Product. Since now after the implementation
of severe austerity measures and a debt reduction scheme (haircut) it’s public
Debt as a percentage of its GDP is above 160%. This situation is combined with
high and increasing poverty, unemployment and misery.
What
went wrong? Economist and politicians from all over the world now see the deep depression
and the debt overhang problem not as cause which drove to the memorandum but as
a symptom of it. The austerity measures which are implemented by the Greek
Governments following the guidelines of “Troika” are supposed to be necessary
for the nation’s salvation. However our view is quite different….
Solidarity or speculation
During
the last years Greek people listen to Mrs Merkel, Mr Sarkozy, Mr Rehn, Mr
Juncker, Mr Schäuble etc. that Europe shows solidarity to Greece by giving
money. That money of course is not donation. They are loans, and indeed, with
interest rate much higher from the interest rate that the European Central Bank
is charging the European private banks for giving them loans. Another truth is
that only 15% of “Troika’s” loans are going to
the Greek Economy. The vast 85% repays old Greek debt which
was allocated at the portfolio of private banks from all over the world. So
what is happening the last years is not the salvation of Greek nation but a
huge bail-out of private banks.
The PSI and the haircut
Greek
government some months ago celebrated the “great success” of the PSI, the “private
sector involvement” to the Greek debt problem. The involvement refers to a
reduction of the nominal amount of Greek public debt. In the banking jargon
this is called a “hair cut”. Normally a “haircut” reduces the public debt
burden and may help an economy under some conditions. Such condition is the
transparency that this action has to be accompanied with. For the Greek haircut
this is not the case. Additionally the haircut must be followed with a long
grace period and low interest rates in order to be avoided the accumulation of
new debt. This is not the case either. There is no grace period and the
interest rate is well above the market interest rates. Finally the haircut must
be accompanied with measures that enhance a sustainable growth. For Greece not
only these measures are absent but also the draconian austerity measures that
have caused the deep recession are going to be continued. The fact that the
haircut included the bonds of the Greek public pension and insurance funds,
Greek hospitals, Greek universities and Greek individuals who placed their
life-time savings to Greek Government bonds instead of a bank deposit make the
situation even worse and the negative social consequences vast. Thus the
haircut appears more than a communication trick rather than a true assistant to
the Greek people given that Greek government received a new loan of 130 billion
Euros.
And the story goes on
In
October 2012 another agreement took place between Troika and the Greek
Government. They agreed for a new «haircut» accompanied with new austerity measures,
more flexible labour market[1]
and less social expenses. This «cocktail» imagines rather explosive for the Greek
society.
Economic and Social Consequences
Numbers
are revealing a dramatic situation in Greece both in the economic and in the social
sphere. Greek people have on average lost about 35% of their real income the
last two years. The official unemployment is reaching 25% -the unofficial is
increasing dramatically with the official rate to be close to 30% or more, while
the number of suicides has also increased by almost 20% compared to 2011.
[Queues at the banks: Queues outside the banks the last day of the month are very big.
Pensioners standing patiently to receive their pension because they ran out of
money early during the month or taxpayers wait until the very last day of the
deadline to settle up their taxes, car fees etc.]
Crisis and Environment
From
the outburst of the crisis since now Greek people are blackmailed with various
(pseudo) dilemmas. “Strong (neo-liberal) government or chaos”, “euro or
drachma”, “austerity or default”, “less wage or unemployment” these dilemmas
are presented from the media in an everyday basis in order to terrorize the Greek
people. The only solution for the Greek people is to accept the bitter medicine
in order to avoid death. However, in the end, the medicine will cause the
death.
Accordingly
similar dilemmas are presented related to the natural environment. “You want development or environmental
protection?”. For the inspirers of the neo-liberal shock doctrines, growth
and natural environment are conflicting concepts. Of course the growth that
they envision has nothing to do with a sustainable development. It is the
growth which pollutes, destroys the environment, reduces the wages and
distributes totally unfair the income.
Such
“growth” is trying to be implemented to the Greek economy. Several laws have
been voted by the Greek government after 2010 which will have severe
consequences to the Greek coasts, Greek islands, “Natura protected areas”,
urban open spaces. Additionally some small steps that have been done the last
decade for the environmental education are stopping suddenly. Ecology and environment
in Greece is being hit as harsh as Greek people’s income. The ecological
movement –the term ecological is used instead of environmental because it
includes also the concept of the living standards- is now a necessity as a
counterweight to the crisis. The cooperation and the coordination in a national
and European level of the forces who dispute the neo-liberal and unsustainable
growth model is necessary for the protection of the environment and the
society. The Friends of Nature in Greece, despite the well known difficulties,
will fight for the protection of natural and social environment by all means
(legally, educationally, in movements).
[Smog: Athenian sky is
full of smog. A phenomenon which is attributed to the operation of technological
outdated fireplaces and stoves. Furthermore the illegal logging has taken huge
dimensions. Greek people in order to heat their houses cut trees even in urban
territories.]
The Future
We
believe that Greece is the first experiment in Europe for the implementation of
the “shock doctrine”. Recently Angela Merkel warned the German people (maybe
the more productive labor force in Europe) that difficult years are in front of
them. If the severe neo-liberal experiment succeeds in Greece other European
countries will follow. If these policies continue probably in the future Europe
will not be the Europe that we all know. We believe that this adverse situation
which has hit Greece, but also other European countries is steaming from the
fact that European Union is dominated by conservative governments and the
financial capital. The European left, green even social-democratic view is
quite different for both the causes and the solution of the European crisis.
Only if the orientation of the European governments and European Union changes
towards to a true soliditarity and sustainable development and a limitation of
the power of financial capital, we can hope for a better future. We see our future
in the European family. Not a family which dominates its children but a
progressive, democratic and ecologic family. We believe to a Europe not for the
money and banks but for the people.
Konstantine Fotinakis
|
Dr. Anastasios Pappas
|
President of Naturefriends Greece
|
Member of Naturefriends Greece
anastasios1977@gmail.com
|
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