Hurray! Our Lenders & Masters are pleased with us! Yes, us, the lazy and tax evading Greeks. Our Lenders & Masters are pleased with the progress we have made. Oh wait! EU Monetary affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn did not say that exactly. He said instead: “We are seeing encouraging signs of stabilization in the Greek economy and expect a return to positive growth in 2014.”
Olli Rehn acknowledged the sacrifices and the plight of Greek people:
“The situation remains very difficult for Greek citizens, not least the dramatically high numbers of unemployed,” Rehn added in the same sentence. He hailed the lives-ruining austerity program which our Lenders & Masters call “structural reform program” in an effort to cover with sprayed flower’s fragrance the odor of rotten rats. Calling the economic destruction through the bail-out program a “sustainable recovery in growth and job creation” sounds like a bad joke spoken by somebody without humor.
“The structural reform programme is an agenda for a sustainable recovery in growth and job creation, and the Task Force for Greece is working hard to support the Greek authorities in its implementation. It is particularly encouraging to see the strong improvement in Greece’s absorption of EU funding, which is an essential source of investment at this time.”
Olli Rehn’s comments and wishes appear in the 5. Greece report published by the European Commission’s Task Force under the leadership of German Horst Reichenbach. The report covers the period April-September 2013.
This period has witnessed a broadening and deepening of the technical assistance provided by the Task Force, which supports the Greek authorities in implementing the economic reform agenda linked to the country’s financial assistance programme, as well as in making the best possible use of the country’s allocation of EU Structural and Cohesion funding.
Good progress has been made in unlocking infrastructure investments. Work on four large motorways with a combined value of €7.6 billion, which has been suspended for three years due to the crisis, is close to being restarted, with EU clearance and financial support expected in the coming weeks. The Task Force has been providing advice and guidance to help kick-start the completion of these projects.
One of the most striking improvements to which the Task Force, along with other parts of the European Commission, has contributed has been Greece’s increased absorption of Structural and Cohesion Funding. Of the €20 billion currently available to Greece from the EU budget, 67.5% had been disbursed by the end of September, up from 49% at the end of 2012. Since December 2011, Greece has risen from 18th position to 6th in the EU league table of Structural Funds absorption, representing a much-needed injection of liquidity into the economy.
In the area of public finances and tax collection, technical assistance has been instrumental in setting up new structures for public financial management and public revenue administration. There are signs of increased efficiency in the tax administration and public revenue administration. There are signs of increased efficiency in the tax administration and the number of completed audits of large taxpayers has more than doubled over the first seven months of the year compared to 2012.
Lastly, the Task Force has provided support for a national anti-corruption strategy and the appointment of a national coordinator to oversee its implementation, which is already underway. Training in identifying money laundering and tax evasion has been provided to over 500 officials. Technical assistance has supported the preparation of legislation to set up a new registry of bank accounts and helped boost the capacity of the Financial Intelligence Unit (the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism funding authority). This has resulted in the reporting of 1130 cases of suspected tax evasion, the transmission of 313 cases to the Prosecutor´s Office and freezing of assets worth €133 million.
the report continues and you can find it complete here.
I don’t know how often Reichenbach and his team visit Greece, I don’t know if they have contacts with real people, I don’t know if Olli Rehn has a vague picture of where is Greece on the European map.
Clear is Rehn, Reichenbach & the other kids, they have no idea about Greece, Greece’s reality, Greece’s unemployment and Greeks’ real lives – whether with or without EU funds [where’s the money?], with or without taxation successes [where is the investigation for the Lagarde list and the other lists with 25K-54K alleged tax evaders?], with or without corruption (most probably still with).
Rehn: Is that ‘one job’ I see up there?
No, they have no idea. Because people here keep talking about EU funds going only to big businesses and joint ventures, that nepotism is still alive and kicking, that “if you’re not engaged in a clique with state contacts, you have no chance to survive,” as a friend put it last night.
No, they have no idea and they don’t care too.
Reichenbach: “For growth stand on the right queue, for jobs stand on the left”
They just write down their bloomy reports to justify their existence and the high salary and benefits they get.. They need to prove, they’re successful.
PS Catching the small fish does mean that the shark is not still swimming around.
