Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant told the European Parliament that the way forward for the economic adjustment programme for Greece can only be sustained through substantial debt relief. Dr. Sant intervened during a debate on the ongoing negotiations on the first review of the economic adjustment programme for Greece in the presence of Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici. “Most actors in this miserable scenario subscribe to the dogma that Eurozone membership is irreversible. They should be prepared to pay in order to safeguard that dogma.” emphasised the Maltese MEP.
Dr. Sant said the process remains detached from the hardship and suffering that millions are having to endure. “It is true that those who overborrow have to pay for their mistakes, but there comes a time when a line must be drawn under their liabilities. For it is also true that those who overlend should also have to pay for their mistake: that is the logic of the free market. In the case of Greece, those who overlent have been let off almost scot free. We are now having to support a policy in which a people who has been subjected to years of austerity is being forced to accept the prospect of having to carry further burdens.”
Dr Sant said that despite all the flowery rhetoric we are subjected to, about European solidarity and what have you, the so-called economic adjustment programmes for Greece have become a hypocritical sham. The truth is that the process is driven by casuistic calculation based on the application of selfserving economic and financial positivism.
Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre MOSCOVICI gave a positive debrief after Monday’s Eurogroup meeting, saying that Greece is expected to return to growth in the second half of 2016 and to a deficit of less than 3% in 2017.