Brussels, 22/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 22 January, MEPs on the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee took a hard line with Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras in a debate that ended up being about Greece's economic situation rather than the Greek Presidency's priorities for the Ecofin council.
The committee chair, Sharon Bowles (ADLE, United Kingdom), had to keep calling the MEPs to order to get them to focus on the scheduled subject, but with little success.
Stournaras said that Greece had taken over the presidency of the Council of the EU as a recovering country rather than a country in crisis, but a number of MEPs said that his comment was a little hasty and many Greek inhabitants would disagree with him. Quoting the unemployment figures, Ashley Fox (ECR, United Kingdom) asked how he could consider his country's economic performance as a success.
Stournaras argued that economics was not black or white and there was a time lag before positive outcomes are seen in daily life. The situation is improving at a more sustained rate, he explained, promising good figures at the end of June on growth and jobs. In answer to a question from Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium), Stournaras said that the tax income targets had been exceeded in 2013, for the first time in years.
The Greek minister noted, in reply to a question from Nikos Choutis (GUE/NGL, Greece), who said that the country had been sacrificed to save European banks, that his European partners had shown solidarity with Greece and the eurozone was ready to take further action, as was shown by the November 2012 agreement on reducing the Greek debt burden. The loans to Greece already have very low interest rates and long maturity dates, but it was possible to consider further improvements and other ways of reducing the debt burden, he said. The debt will also be reduced through the sale of state shares in banks. Stournaras said that, before entering talks on this tricky issue, Greece was awaiting the end of the negotiating with the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund), adding that the “debt situation is better than the numbers suggest”, but a “mutually profitable solution for Greece and its European partners” still needs to be found. (EL/transl.fl)