German member of the Bundestag, leader of the Christian Democrat Union parliamentary group and close aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel made a shocking proposal. To place Greece under guardianship! Speaking to SPIEGEL-ONLINE, Kauder threatened Greece with a payment stop and if necessary the country should be placed under EU guardianship.
“We can not always just give money without something changes,”Kauder told “Spiegel Online”. He criticized Greece’s reform efforts particularly sharply: “Despite all the aid packages in the country, Greece apparently only very slightly improved.”
Greece put under guardianship if necessary
Against the backdrop of the current negotiations on the new rescue package Kauder makes his point . “It must be made clear: there is money only if the country is being tight – if necessary, a state commissioner who is employed by the EU or the euro countries.”
Kauder said: “We can not always just give money without some changes.”
Why don’t they just dust off the 1941 plans for operation Mercury?
Come and get it!You’ll be in for a big surprise. Enough’s Enough!
Greece’s political class delivered not one real essential reform. They showed their total incompetence so many times now. As I read it, Kauder is saying that if the PSI negotiations also fail, but Greece still wants to lend the billions of euro, then, as a last resort the country might be placed under EU guardianship.
His last sentence in the answer I quoted says it very clear: “Public confidence in the political class seems to be exhausted in Greece.”
So from this, in my opinion, correct analysis of the situation here in Greece, he comes to the point where Greeks would be able to vote in a referendum about either getting no money and leaving the Euro-Zone or getting the money and a Guardianship to reform this failed state.
So, no new ‘Battle of Krete’ or Molon Labe necessary. The Greek people would get to decide at last.
Since the Greek government consist of families that have been for years in the government and all stays the same, they cannot even cooperate together in a coalition government, some members of the parliament don’t even read agreements of huge importance before they sign them, this is actually not a bad idea. Nobody trusts any Greek government anyway so why not a Guardianship?
If the Greek government is unable to make the changes required to ensure future growth perhaps they should allow others to run the country for a few years.
Seems to be a coordinated ‘effort’:
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg on Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-27/politicians-shouldn-t-pressure-ecb-on-losses-sweden-s-borg-says.html
I think the emphasis should be on the term “EU-guardianship” (leave Germany out of it!). I spend about half the year in Greece. I witness so much being fed up with just about the entire current situation (politicians, public sector, regulations, etc. etc.) that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the idea of having EU-guardians for a while got a fair amount of approval in a plebiscite. A very prominent businessman in Thessaloniki, a Greek, told me a few months ago: “There is only one solution for the public sector: there must be 2 persons for every position of authority – an EU-expert who teaches and a Greek who learns”. My response was “impossible, that would get you a revolution!” He disagreed with me.
If the Eurozone ever moves towards a transfer union, there will have to be EU-guardianships. For example: Germany’s 16 federal states make up a transfer union and it is the most natural thing for Germans that if one of those states looks like getting out of control financially, it will be put under the guardianship of the Ministry of Finance. Same in Austria with her 9 federal states.
Nevertheless, I truly think that Greeks should focus much more on how they can help themselves instead of focusing so much on what happens outside of Greece and/or looking for help from others. Contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of things that a country can do on its own even if it is in such dire financial straits as Greece is today. A couple of examples are below.
http://klauskastner.blogspot.com/2012/01/eureca-worth-another-look.html
http://klauskastner.blogspot.com/2011/11/appeal-to-greek-brainpower.html
A lot is being needed to have a federal state. Fisrt of all it needs the consent of the people. Germany has a different history than Greece. It’s a grave mistake to want to transfer ‘successful applications’ from one country to the other. It’s not the web-world but the real world.
Agree totally. I, for one, think a Europe as a federal state could never work with all the regional differences in culture, language, etc. But no thinking person can expect a transfer union to work without central supervision/control. One of the reasons why the Marshall Plan was successful was that a US commissioner had ultimate authority over what countries did with the money.
Just look at what Greece did with the money so far. The bulk was used to finance imports and capital flight. The sooner you curtail/stop this, the sooner Greece will get better. And most of the remainder was used to finance debt service. There is very little of the billions and billions of Euros which have flowed into Greece in the last 2 years which really went into something productive.
You think the situation is different in Ireland, Spain, Portugal?
Make me your “guardian” (state commissioner) and i’ll forbit all cars, planes and ships that are not run by wind-turbines or humam-powered. Cruising tourists will have to pedal their ships while the Greeks can help a bit in their workout by whipping their backs and unlike Kauder fantasized Europe will not speak German but Greek because that’s the language of the revolution.
lol
The only thing is that if the Greeks perceive the guardianship as an occupation of sort (which they will as their sheep like media will convince them), then they will even retract more as their public authorities will be less willing to turn in their law-breaking brothers which could be seen as being traitors.
Now, ironcially, does anyone else find it odd that the name of the Swede is “BORG” and if you know anything about popular culture, the “BORG” were the race of aliens that took over a planet with the slogan “Resistance is Futile”…
lol maybe Swedish citizens vote according to hollywood’s top 10