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Greek Parliament Passes Humanitarian Relief Bill in Defiance of European Creditors
19 March 2015
EIRNS — The Greek Parliament passed the government’s promised humanitarian relief legislation today, in the face of opposition by the European creditors who are responsible for the catastrophe the Greek government will now struggle to deal with. Speaking in Parliament, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared: "People have asked us to put an end to austerity and bailout agreements, to begin the process of reclaiming the dignity of the nation." Declaring the days of the ECB-IMF-EU Commission Troika overseers at an end, he continued, "Elected officials will negotiate with elected officials, and technocrats will deal with technocrats.... We will not back down from what we promised, and what society and the economy need in order to breathe," Tsipras said, adding that his government expected the "liquidity pressure" that they are now suffering at the hands of the ECB and international banks. Earlier in the day it was reported the Declan Costello, the European Commission’s chief representative on the technical team monitoring Greece, criticized the new laws as "unilateral action" and not coordinated with the Feb. 20 agreement reached at Eurogroup. The Greek government thinks otherwise. "If dealing with the humanitarian crisis is considered unilateral action in the Europe of 2015, then what is left of European values?" responded government officials. Interior and Administrative Reconstruction Minister Nikos Voutsis confirmed that a letter from Costello to Greek authorities had demanded the withdrawal of the two draft laws which the Eurocrat had characterized as "unilateral actions." Voutsis, however, asserted that the two laws do not infringe on the Feb. 20 agreement and, therefore, the government has now passed them. Costello’s remarks are part of the Eurogroup’s continued hardline policy for Greece to submit or leave the Eurozone. This was openly implied by European Commissioner for financial affairs Pierre Moscovici, who told the German daily Die Welt, "The Eurogroup has an overwhelming will to keep Greece in the Eurozone. Financial accidents can happen. Our task, however, is not to organize this but to prevent it." But, he continued, "We won’t keep Greece in the Eurozone at any price, but under strict conditions which are acceptable for both sides." Moscovici said that any possible third aid package must look different from the previous ones. Meanwhile the Euro Working Group held an extraordinary teleconference on Greece on March 17, to address the "cooperation problems" that the creditors’ technical experts "are experiencing.... with their Greek counterparts, and called on the latter to increase their efforts," as Kathimerini stiffly put it. Furthermore, the EU technical experts were not pleased by the announcement that privatization revenues will now be channelled toward supporting the countyr’s social security system, made by Stergios Pitsiorlas, the new head of Greece’s privatization organization, TAIPED, and by Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani. The EU experts were unhappy that these revenues were no longer going to go to paying off the debt. Nor do they like the intention of the Greek government to change TAIPED’s name to the State Property Fund. Stergios Pitsiorlas as the new president, said that the two board members whom creditors appointed as observers — Zenon Kontolemis and Philippe Boin — will have no place in the State Property Fund. In response to the EU bureaucrats’ statements, Athens’ ministers and government officials pointed to the group’s condescending "colonial attitude," treating Greece like a banana republic. Prime Minister Tsipras’s associates say, "Passing bills to soothe the wounds of the destructive policies of recent years can only be considered ’unilateral action,’ exposing that the technical groups are unable to guarantee the implementation of the Feb. 20 agreement." Dean Andromidas |
