Campaigners from pressure groups Positive Money Europe, WeMove.EU and Eurodad will hand in a petition to the Eurogroup as it meets at 15h00 CEST on Friday demanding Greek debt profits are fully returned from the European Central Bank.
According to pressure groups investigation, €8 billion are missing from the Eurogroup deal for the Securities and Markets Programme (SMP) programme.
“Greece lost billions out of the obscure ECB programme,” research and campaigning organization Positive Money Europe found out.
Over 100,000 Europeans mobilize to sign the petition in solidarity with Greek people, campaigners said in a press release sent to KTG.
The petition organised by WeMove.EU calls for Eurozone governments to return the interest it has accrued on Greek government bonds, and had attracted over 117,000 signatures by Thursday.
In October 2017 the ECB confirmed that it had profited €7.8bn from its holdings of Greek government debt purchased through its Securities and Markets Programme (SMP) and Agreements on Net Financial Assets (ANFAs) between 2012 and 2016.
However research by Positive Money Europe indicates that total profits will likely exceed €17.6bn between 2010 and 2022.
Campaigners argue that Greece, which has been crushed by years of austerity, should receive the interest on its government bonds, as was agreed in 2012, rather than creditor states such as France and Germany.
In June, the Eurogroup reached an agreement to return part of the profits to Greece through semi-annual payments. However it appears that €8 billion are still missing out from the deal.
After handing in the petition, the campaigners will meet with a Eurogroup spokesperson Louis Rego to discuss the matter and to ask that it is put back on top of the Eurogroup agenda.
Virginia López Calvo, Senior Campaigner at Wemove said:
“As if years of painful austerity were not enough, Eurozone creditors have also pocketed billions of euros in interest from their bailout money in order to punish the Greek people. More than 100,000 people are standing up to demand that this money is returned to Greece, in order to support an economic recovery that truly values people’s lives and dignity.
Head of Positive Money Europe, Stan Jourdan, said:
“Eurozone finance ministers have used the SMP as an instrument of blackmail, withholding billions of euros when Greece resists austerity, and profiting from the Greek people’s suffering. The Eurogroup must return all undue profits back to Greece, where they belong, and where they are needed most.”
