Reuters reported that the “Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to release an 8 billion euro ($10.7 billion) aid payment to Greece, part of a 110 billion euro package of support agreed with Athens last year, an EU diplomat said.
The joint EU/IMF payment is the sixth installment of loans to help Greece finance itself since being cut off from financial markets. Without the payment, Athens risks going bankrupt.
The payment was dependent on a written commitment from Greece that it would meet its obligations to cut its budget deficit and keep finances in check.
“The Eurogroup endorsed the payout of the sixth tranche to Greece,” the diplomat said.
The payment has been held up for a month because of delays in Greece’s commitment to cut spending and increase taxes.” (Reuters )
However the issue has not been solved yet. Now it is the turn of International Monetary Fund and the Troika supervisors of Greece’s fiscal programme to give their blessing as well. The 6th aid tranche is due to be released around December 10th 2011. According to Greek government officials, the state has liquidity until the middle of December.
Greek politicians, media, academia and opinion leaders should be ashamed for more or less ignoring (and hiding from the public) that this Task Force has been at work for nearly 3 months. It has published its 1st Report recently. The Task Force had been established by the EU so that its resources can be used by Greek authorities to meet 3 great challenges facing the country and Greek society:
1. Supporting growth, employment and competitiveness.
2. Enabling growth through reform of Greek public administration.
3. Maintaining progress towards fiscal consolidation.
The Task Force’s 1st Report outlines a multitude of initiatives which have been started already. Reviewing them, one can come to the conclusion that the noble goal which the Task Force sets out for itself in the Executive Summary can realistically be achieved, namely:
The Task Force is a resource at the disposal of the Greek authorities as they seek to build a modern and prosperous Greece: a Greece characterised by economic opportunity and social equity, and served by an efficient administration with a strong public service ethos.
I am certain that the vast majority of Greeks would love to hear that there is hope for a Greece characterized by economic opportunity and social equity, and served by an efficient administration with a strong public service ethos. I am even certain that the majority of Greeks would enthusiastically support such a project and contribute to it where they can.
How should the Greek public find out about this project when neither politicians, media, academia nor opinion leaders discuss it intensively?
Let’s assume for a moment the worst-case-scenario happens in Greece: complete collapse of the economic, financial and political systems. The return to a standard of living of decades ago and mass emigration above all of the younger generation would be consequences.
If that happened, how would the present Greek generation justify to the younger one that they did have the opportunity to avoid that but they didn’t take advantage of it?
http://klauskastner.blogspot.com/2011/11/1st-report-of-eu-task-force.html
there are indeed reports on the Task Force in the Greek media, Klaus
Nice Rieffenstahl(?) Euro picture:
http://www.taz.de/EU-Finanzminister-einigen-sich-/!82819/
Interesting Comment by some Graecoalemannos (your “german intellectuals”
exist) contact-info via myspace account of the german-greek band Free Yourself
http://www.taz.de/!82524/
No, that’s a sculpture by May Claerhout, born 1939. A Belgian artist. She has a very interesting website http://www.mayclaerhout.be/main.php?taal=engels&pagina=Europa
From that website about this:
But the photo-editor should get another job for, and I agree with your feeling, making this Riefenstahl-quote.
(Oeps, too quick. This should go behind it: 😳 )
As if hearing Greeks comparing all Germans with Hitler is not bad enough. Then we have this German ‘playing’ with Nazi-symbolism…