Greek bailout: Tough negotiations to continue

For the second time, eurozone finance ministers have not reached an agreement on how to go on with the Greek bailout programme. But both sides are not far apart, said Grégory Claeys from the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank in our weekly “U Talking to Me?” debate. Despite the clashes, trade unionist Bernadette Ségol still believes the change of government in Greece is a chance to change the EU economic policy.

Shortly after the results of the Greek elections were published in January, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) wrote in a press communiqué that the change of government in Greece would be “an opportunity for all of Europe” to “re-evaluate the economic and social policies” and “to take a new path.”

Despite the clash between Greece and the rest of the eurozone, repeated on Monday ( February 16) at the Eurogroup meeting, ETUC has maintained this view.

“I would say the same today,” explained Bernadette Ségol, general secretary of ETUC, in the Euranet Plus debate, referring to the social consequences of the austerity measures taken by the former Greek government.

She qualified the ongoing negotiations as “very tough,” but still believes that the situation is “not as blocked as it seems to be.”

Communication problems

“It is the first time a government is questioning implemented EU policy in this way,” said Grégory Claeys, a research fellow with the Bruegel think tank. According to him, Greece is not asking for too much. Both sides might not be able to communicate properly, though.

“It is true that on the one side we have a new government that is quite unexperienced [sic] and maybe some time they have communication problems, and on the other side we have like a tough, unflexible Eurogroup team. So in a way it is more because of the communication than on the substance. Because what is asked by the new Greek government is quite normal,” Claeys explained.

The Greek government has already given up a lot of points in these negotiations, Claeys underlined, and gave the example of the debt relief that is no longer a Greek condition.

Ségol said that this Greek government already showed that it is not opposed to reforms, such as the one on taxation.

“They would bring results. I mean the taxes in particular. The fact that you should have registration of your properties and so on. So, you know, reforms are not the block. We have to see which reforms and for whom they are going to work. What is absolutely clear is that they cannot continue putting the burden on the people, the limit is reached,” she said.

Ségol does see “a margin for implementation of the contract” and according to her, if one of the partners should collapse, the contract has to be reviewed.

Greek bail-out: tough negotiations to be continued – U Talking to Me? debate on February 17, 2015

Dogmatic EU finance ministers

Olivier Hanrion, a journalist with the Belgian Euranet Plus partner RTBF, joined the debate and asked whether the eurozone finance ministers had approached the negotiations in a dogmatic and ideological way.

Compared to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Claeys responded, the Eurogroup’s reaction seem to be rather inflexible.

“On one side, the IMF is accepting to say: OK, we have made some mistakes and we should do it differently. And on the other side, the ministers of the eurozone don’t seem ready yet to accept that they have made some mistakes and that they have prescribed the wrong medicines,” he said.

Claeys wondered why countries like France or Italy are not intending to counterbalance the position of the northern countries, expressing his surprise about the fact that the 18 EU ministers seemed to agree on one position toward Greece.

During the debate, Ségol said that Germany plays a central role. Meanwhile, Facebook user Anika from Germany asked on our fan page for more solidarity amongst Europeans. “We should show more solidarity with Greek people. In Germany, we just try to save our investments,” she wrote.

European solidarity

Asked by Florin Orban from Radio România, also a Euranet Plus member, about concrete action planned to support the Greeks, Ségol explained that the trade unions did show solidarity in the past years, not only with Greece but also with the people suffering from austerity measures in other countries.

Ségol referred to Article 3 of the Treaty of the European Union, engaging EU member states to solidarity. This article should be shown once more to the EU finance ministers, she said.

“I hope that gradually the idea that European member states cannot continue like that is going to come to an end. That it will get in their heads that this is absolutely not working, that they need investment, that they need to have another policy,” she said.

Listen to the entire audio recording of the debate below (or watch it above)

• Author: Danièle Weber, Euranet Plus News Agency

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