GREECE - During the first seven months of 2013, the surplus reached €1.1bn (£921m), he
said, adding this would enable the country to negotiate with its creditors, the
European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Greece has received massive rescue funding, tied to tough conditions, from
the EU and the IMF to help it overcome a debt crisis which threatened the
eurozone.
However, the a resulting structural reforms, including an overhaul of its
public sector and its tax system, have proved unpopular.
On Saturday Samaras promised no further austerity measures would be
introduced, saying the economy "cannot take" them any more.
"Debt levels will be manageable, Greece has respected its commitments... now,
the creditors must also respect what was agreed," he added.
Protests in Thessaloniki, the country's second largest city, were organised
by the private and public sector trade unions, GSEE and Adedy, who called for
"fighting austerity and poverty".
Police said about 4,500 extra officers had been sent to the city to avert
rioting during the four-hour demonstration.
The EU and the IMF recently praised the Greek government's progress in
turning the economy around, but bemoaned delays to a programme of privatisation
and reform, and the fact that the country will likely need further aid in 2014
and 2015 amounting to around €10bn.
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Holders of Equitable Life with-profits annuities dating from before September 1992 will receive compensation under a government scheme before next April, the Treasury said today.
When the scheme was announced in this year's Budget, the Treasury said payments would be made in the next financial year, or earlier if possible.
It has now said it intends to pay the compensation – a single "ex gratia" payment of £5,000 – in the current financial year as long as the necessary legislation can pass through Parliament in time.
Between 10,000 and 11,000 policyholders are eligible for a payment, the Treasury said. Letters to all individuals eligible for a payment will be sent out this week. Recipients of the pension credit, a means-tested top-up to the state pension, will get an extra £5,000.
The typical german reaction when having made a mistake is to look in the other direction and pretend nothing has happened, pereferably with ones head in the air as if whiter than white. That for me is what has happened over the last few years. The german bank bailouts were almost silent, secret, much like german corruption. The ensuing discussion was remarkable for its absence and the subsequent/current german building boom, despite german credit houses having been heavily involved in disastrous Irish and Spanish speculative property development, does make you wonder what on earth is going on. Germans tell themselves (or at least the media does) "uns geht es gut" but the multitude of homeless people sleeping in bank cashpoint areas, under bridges, the pensioners rummaging through dustbins looking for empty bottles to collect the deposits, suggests a different narrative. This hasnt unravelled and the germans are perpetrating a bluff and hiding the true state of their biggest bank. Ackermanns legacy attempting to make Deutsche Bank a "global player" has not yet been uncovered but the fact he had to leave speaks volumes. It is often said that if Deutsche Bank falls it will take germany with it. Well germans should rather start looking at their own house instead of pointing fingers and playing the man with the "weisse weste". Its an old role and one that doesn't wash, and never did.
But for Greeks such as Ioannis Pelegrinis, the worst is still to come. "The German leadership is clearly looking out for its own financial interests, as the government of any sovereign country should. Unfortunately, they are doing so at the expense of other EU and eurozone members. That exactly is the sort of attitude that will bring the dissolution of the EU
."
Which is exactly why the Euro was such an insane idea. Monetary union without political union simply can't work. And political union would never work in Europe, even if the people wanted it, which they don't.
It's not that I dislike the Germans, in fact I admire them, after all they are the only country to really benefit from the Euro fiasco. Also along with France they did not sign up to unlimited immigration either, you have to admire that.
Much of the Greek debt belongs to German and French banks, so you have to admire that instead of taking the debt on the chin, she repeatedly orders the EU countries to sanction yet another bale out. Admirable Indeed.
It's incredible and laughable to suggest Merkel is "pragmatic" and not an ideologue. She's in the paws of the bankers, and it's German banking that's done a lot to beggar parts of Europe. Whether the people of Germany have benefitted is very much a moot point - there's even more spin in Germany than in Blair's Britain. She's wrecked the German post-office in her push towards privatisation, for example, and has set odious headlines for her victims to have to follow. She could only go to Athens when the police clear the streets for acres around her route. She's not a bold bad gambler like Thatcher, no Falkland and no poll tax and no miners' strike. Thatcher was confrontational. What's sinister about Merkel is the way the slavish media doesn't foreground her ideological drive to the economic right.
It's incredible and laughable to suggest Merkel is "pragmatic" and not an ideologue. She's in the paws of the bankers, and it's German banking that's done a lot to beggar parts of Europe. Whether the people of Germany have benefitted is very much a moot point - there's even more spin in Germany than in Blair's Britain. She's wrecked the German post-office in her push towards privatisation, for example, and has set odious headlines for her victims to have to follow. She could only go to Athens when the police clear the streets for acres around her route. She's not a bold bad gambler like Thatcher, no Falkland and no poll tax and no miners' strike. Thatcher was confrontational. What's sinister about Merkel is the way the slavish media doesn't foreground her ideological drive to the economic right.
bill9651
10 September 2013 8:10pm
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It beats me why anybody could say that she has handled the euro crisis well.
People in southern Europe are starving and their economies are completely fucked. But Merkel doesn't care, because Germany benefits from a Euro which is significantly weaker than the D-Mark - and of course the EU project has no reverse gear.
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mcscotty bill9651
10 September 2013 8:29pm
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Germany is a beneficiary of the Euro, which has kept its exports affordable, but the economies of southern Europe have been ruined by their own politicians who fiddled the figures to enter the Euro.
Millions of people have had their livelihoods ruined because their politicians couldn't bear to be left out of the Euroclub. Mrs Merkel is a nasty piece of work, and German politicians are interested only in Germany's prosperity, but the blame is shared by all those politicians who fiddled the figures, and by all those who turned a blind eye.
She is the problem, not the solution.
Merkel want to preserve the euro in its current form, she does not want to save the euro.
To save it would require fiscal union, eurobonds, banking union, joint liabilities. Not that I blame her for not wanting that as the German electorate don't want it and she is tasked to look after their interests. Though she will not contemplate breaking it up, or what was always the best option of Germany leaving (probably with some of the other stronger EZ nations) which would allow the others to keep the euro and it devalue down.
Instead she wants to keep the status quo with a monetary union even if it is unworkable. Sheer pig headiness, but as it isn't hurting Germany then she has no need to change. However it is hurting her European partners and that is simply unacceptable. With the odd vague promise that something will be done in the distant future, and then going back on her word (Mexico 2012), just to keep people on board.
Obviously it isn't all her fault, far from it, but post election others need to force her hand. Between Rajoy, Letta, Hollande and a few others there needs to be an ultimatum put down that either she does support the euro, put it to a referendum, or stand out the way and go back to the DM.
I think the Euro has been wonderful for Germany and a nightmare for many others if only because without it Germany would have had a stronger currency, and been less competitive in export markets, and the southern Europeans would have had the opposite. Also, the big sales points of the Euro - no currency risk, no currency conversion costs strikes me as more advantageous for the exporter than the domestic producer.
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pastendgame Nodget
10 September 2013 11:06pm
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The euro has been good for Germany as in a world of falling currencies a strong Deutschmark would have been a nightmare.
Plus, the eurozone provided a market for the German products and an export-oriented Germany needed this market in order to channel their surplus.
Great idea in the beginning, but too bad the Germans sold too much, cheated to obtain contracts too much (eg Athens Olympics), lent too much and, finally, cooked the eurozone project for all.
The Germans in the eurozone remind me the obese Mr. Creosote in Monty Pythons (The Meaning of Life). After a point, even a mint can cause an explosion...
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Cartmanez pastendgame
10 September 2013 11:24pm
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but too bad the Germans sold too much, cheated to obtain contracts too much (eg Athens Olympics), lent too much and, finally, cooked the eurozone project for all.
And it is important to remember that nobody bought too much, was trailing Transparency International league tables, borrowed too much, paid themselves fantasy wages, and, finally, cooked up the eurozone project for all (but kept the stuff they had bought). The obesity metaphor seems to apply to consumers more than to producers.
Angela Merkel (ferkel=piglet) is a failiure in Germany and Europe. She has thrown German taxpayers money(mine too as an ex pat living here) to the banks and speculators who Greece owed money too, the Greek people and other southern people are suffering terribly because of the imposed austerity. While hedge fund managers rejoice at the rich earnings they have made from hard paid taxpayers money the health system is at breaking point, old peoples homes are on their knees withstaff stretched to the limit and hospitals are even worse off. It is absolutely scandalous. She has promised and delivered nothing as she hopes that cheap workers can be brought in. Most of job creation has been among the low paid casual sector, job security is a big issue here now. She pretends everything is fine, we know better. Germany is in a terrible state so please leave off using the same cliches as were used for Adenaur, Merkel has made huge mistakes, she is weak and treats most of her own citizens as if they are stupid. Oh the waste.
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laubwald nursinggardener
10 September 2013 11:43pm
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That really is an awful lot of suffering you have to sustain as an expat living in Germany, sorry for that.
I'm no fan of Merkel, but most of your claims are contradicted by facts. Hedge fonds, bankers et al have taken big losses due to the hair cut on Greek sovereign debt. And the percentage of regular, full time jobs has been increasing in recent years:
With Holland in deep deep financial trouble, the euro experiment may be more rickety than you think. Holland followed all rules and guidelines, yet they are in a worst situation than Greece especially if house prices continue to decline and Dutch unemployment continues to rise pushing more people out of their mortgages. An economic bust in the Netherlands is a strong possibility and your idea for a Northern treaty could be another nightmare in the making.
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mcscotty TrasdentBacal
10 September 2013 11:09pm
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I agree with much of what you say. It would have been much better if the Euro had started off as a north-western European currency union, gradually expanding to take in other countries at slow rate which would give time for their economies to be integrated into the Eurosystem with as little pain as possible.
The problem with the Euro is that Europe's political leaders failed to learn the lesson of the EU itself. The EU started off small, and gradually took in new members at a sustainable rate, but that wasn't a good enough method for modern Eurocrats. Instead, to satisfy their own pretentions to grandeur, they started the currency with as many countries as possible, and they turned a blind eye to the fiddling of figures which allowed many countries to "meet the convergence criteria".
However, you concern me when you conflate the Euro's problems and the EU. It may be that the Euro can't be saved in its current form, but the EU can be, and should be. If Europe's leaders can be persuaded to rein in their egos, the EU could play a valuable role in ensuring Europe doesn't lose political influence when it suffers a relative economic decline in the face of the rise of the BRIC economies.
Merkel is right, Greece should have never come in the EU. The same can be said of the whole European integration project. Of course, the situation of today could have been predicted long ago, and Northern states would have opted for a Northern-only treaty instead of the naively optimistic macrounion. However, there are several challenges of strategical dimension concerning a possible dismantling of the EU now, only 70 years after the end of the WWII, and in the face of more or less emerging countries with very different socio-environmental politics and status. It's a puzzle, and I guess Merkel is doing common sense's way, which is to put things on hold to see if someones comes up with a really better idea. It looks nearly impossible, I believe.
But she's no angel of precision....There are plenty of problems both internal and external to Germany which can be solved without invoking austerity principles. You don't necessarily have to believe in the End of the World story, and there's plenty to improve before that happens.
ry country is responsible for their economy - and taking other economies into account - the German people always like to know where they are in life and where they are heading and they sail a course which maximizes a stable future.
And don't borrow money off them if you can't pay it back - not all Germans are rich and think the bailouts for the Greeks should go to them - but it is like the UK in that the rich who invested in Southern Europe are always protected from a haircut which would cost more than the bailout.
Most of you should know this but I doubt it - you know only that they are "German" and don't speak English accent free - all ignorant prejudice - the experience of the Hitler takeover has taught them to take social stability seriously - it is not yet forgotten as it has been in the rest of Europe.
Supposedly it all began in the ongoing terror of the Thirty Years War after 1618.
As a German (disclosure: age 55, leaning decidedly left), I can only say that I found from the start that Merkel has fucked this up. She was feeling her way along, which simply meant that she and finance minister Schäuble did too little too late. I don’t see that will change after September, 22 (taking for granted that Merkel is going to be still in office, no matter in what kind of coalition).
When the whole thing started to go down, it was quite clear that the Germans will have to pay for the bulk of it, and I see an allover haircut still pending. It would have been much wiser in my eyes to say ”Vot ze hell!”, take as much money as needed (and then some) to stomp out the fire at an early stage. Too late now.
And I think forcing this kind of austerity policy down people’s throat was just an act of compelling them into submission. The disastrous results are, in my eyes, not even in Germany’s interest in the long run. Practically ruining the economy of member states doesn’t help anybody at all, and I feel ashamed when I think of all the people that got fired or had to accept drastic pay cuts in those countries.
Doesn’t mean I don’t think that those countries didn’t have to get their act together, but certainly not by being forced to use a choking chain on the economy.
And, by the way, what puzzles me plenty is that tax avoiders/cheaters are not really being prosecuted to get to the taxes they embezzled. I don’t have any sound explanation for that.
(I am North-German, and then I think I am European. Which should mean one for all, all for one. And not that trench digging I’ve been watching in disgust for too long now.)
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Alt Ai MisterRay
11 September 2013 4:10am
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Good points! I think there is a lot of empty blame shifting going on and the mainstream media don't help at all. What we should focus on, instead, is on the wealth distribution. It seems with the neoliberalism and all its resulting ideological policies, like austerity the Europeans are facing the dismantling of the social welfare institutions that the post war generation has fought for and achieved. Germany hasn't had a minimum wage for the lat 10 years, the result is a lot of working poverty and underemployment, lowering wages to the bottom level. It doesn't show much in the statistics, but I know for a fact that the low end wages in Berlin have gone down in the last 10 years. There is a lot of people working for 5 euro/h in the restaurants in Berlin, something unthinkiable 10 years ago. And this is against the backdrop of 10 years of official economic growth in Germany. The same happens in other countries. In Finland, we I've lived for the last 11 years, the social, medical services have deteriorated significantly. But the GDP grew. Go figure.
peacemeister
11 September 2013 12:17am
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I'd like to voice my opinion as a German, and as an European.
Merkel does put German interest above European interest. But that's not the whole story. She also puts German corporate interest above German public interest. And most of all, her own interest above anything else.
I understand people in Germany being upset about everyone in Europe wanting their tax money. But that's only half the truth. The other half is, Germany profits from investors taking back their money from other European countries, and now investing it in the much safer and quite profitable Germany. Our interest rates in Germany have reached an all-time low in the crisis, so German economy profits from this crisis.
And we still live from exports, and so from the EU. German economic interest is: try to keep up the status quo as long as possible, and that is what Merkel does.
Problem is, in my opinion, that will be disastrous for Europe. Polemics aside, the south europeans have a point. There's need for reforms, there's need for savings, but there also needs to be a perspective. You can't just close schools, hospitals, stop investments in infrastructure and deny people their healthcare for nothing in return but a lack of perspective. Just fire everyone from public service and don't offer any alternative for them. You can't just sacrifice the future of countries and societies for nothing but the need to save money.
It almost seems like Britain was right in its Euro-scepticicm. And everyone who was afraid of a too strong Germany after its reunion. That doesn't mean we should split up. In present and future, we simply have no choice but to work together in Europe. We're all in the same boat. If Britain wasn't in the European boat, few would care about it anymore. UKIP is wrong, British interest has to be in a strong Europe, not in a lone Britain.
Our unpopular former chancellor Gerhard Schröder made the reforms that led to present German economic strength. He risked his chancellorship, against his own party, to put through inevitable reforms. He turned the inert giant into an economic powerhouse. Merkel hardly does anything, the economic success she rests on was caused by her predecessor who took great risks. Risks that Merkel would never take. She's not the risky type. Schröder made reforms that were in parts flawed, but his own party, the SPD, is willing to work with and against the flaws today. Merkel is nothing like that. Her own influence is everything, and everything else plays second role, be it Germany, be it Europe.
Chancellor Schröder would have forced similar reforms on those countries, but he would have tried to convince them. Something like "it's going to be hard, but we're in the same boat, and we need to work together to get out of the crisis with greater strength". Even if it would damage his reputation in Germany. Merkel doesn't care about that. She simply says: "it's inevitable, deal with it. German savings are secure, I don't care a lot about the rest of Europe". She only cares about her position. And her position doesn't depend on Greece, Italy, Spain, or Britain. It only depends on Germans wanting to keep their money, and German economy, which is, again, profiting from the Euro crisis.
I am convinced that will destroy Europe, and I will vote for her adversary this month, but I have very little hope in a regime change. My hope is for a large coalition in which the SPD will have a little bit of influence on her Europe policy. A Europe policy, that is, contrary to her claims, careless and heartless.
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