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How the world sees Greece
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Greece Makes Progress in Opening Restricted Professions
Officials said that the deregulated market offered greater opportunities to the country's jobless even as new figures showed unemployment edging higher.
Greek basketball great honoured
 euronews | Greek basketball great honoured euronews Twenty years after his retirement Nick Galis – who is widely considered the greatest Greek Basketball player to grace the European courts – was honored by his former club Aris. Over six thousand people crammed into the main hall of the Alexandrio ... |
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Labour must stand firm: no to a referendum on Europe | Polly Toynbee
Out-of-office Tories have Cameron in a corner. But Miliband should ignore calls to hold a futile and distracting in-out vote
You might almost feel sorry for David Cameron, as John Major's bastards return. Zombie politicians of yesteryear are assembling outside Cameron's door seeking to destroy him for no other reason than that's their nature. Out-of-office politicians yearning to be back among the living, full of unspent ambition – the haughty Michael Portillo, the deluded Nigel Lawson – are off the leash.
This time there is no pretence: they want out of the European Union now. The Times reports up to half Tory MPs agree. That's the result of years of selection of Tory candidates by dwindling Eurosceptic local parties, where no one slightly pro-European had a chance. No one under 45 has heard anything but most politicians – Labour and Tory – talk of approaching Europe as if it were an enemy with red lines not to be crossed and victories to be won.
Cameron told the Global Investment Conference on Thursday that he could win "fundamental reform" in Europe, which he could then use to sway voters in a referendum in 2017. He thought he'd shot Ukip's fox – and his own Liam Foxites – with that promise in January, but throwing them a bone only whetted their appetite. When he said on Thursday that it "is in Britain's interest to remain the country that is uniquely well-connected to the world", this platitude suddenly sounded disturbingly radical. He has become the thin blue line between his party and Ukip.
Lawson and Portillo dismiss any chance of more than "minimal renegotiation". No reform will ever be enough red meat for them, however hard he tries. Cameron has deliberately fudged what he means, special UK optouts or universal reforms for all: on Thursday he spoke of both. Germany's Angela Merkel seems somewhat receptive, according to Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform. The working time directive is a sceptic totem that could be rejigged, since many countries don't abide by it. But the UK will get no optouts, and any universal reforms must be small enough not to need treaty change.
No one wants to trigger any referendums until the crisis is long over. Look at the horrendous figures – 64% youth unemployment in Greece, 42% in Portugal – so who would expect anything but a raspberry to any question that is asked.
The EU is out of favour – no surprise in a crisis worsened by austerity policies that leave rich Germany angry at paying for poor nations, and poor countries outraged at what is imposed on them in the name of a failed economic theory. No growth and – as Douglas Alexander, Labour's shadow foreign secretary, points out – of 27 commissioners, not one commissioner for growth.
Voices on many sides call for a referendum. On these pages, some of an anarcho-conservative tendency always hate institutions, while great pro-Europeans think they can lance the boil, naively hoping reason will prevail. On the left, some want out – seeing the EU as a conservative force in need of break-up. Calling for a referendum is always popular: people tend to want one. How can you deny people a voice? Isn't that an elite conspiracy?
In Scotland Labour's answer to the SNP's demand for an exit referendum was always this: if you want independence, vote SNP. In Westminster elections, taking that clear stand has worked. On the EU referendum, Labour stands equally firm: if you want to vote to get out of Europe, vote for a party that wants out. Alexander has always said: "Reform, not exit." Labour is 100% committed to staying in – but change is essential.
No one need support the EU's errors – the madness of the Strasbourg parliament, paying the common agricultural policy subsidy to the Queen, or the serious lack of a growth plan. But reasons to stay are blindingly clear. US banks and financiers only stay in the City as a gateway to the EU. Japanese car-makers are only here to trade in the EU. President Obama sent an envoy to warn Cameron that a "bridge" to the US was useless if the UK were outside the EU. Cameron presides over the G8 soon, where a long needed EU-US trade deal will bring tariffs tumbling: the UK alone can never win such a deal.
Peace seems a feeble reason to stay in. If prosperity raises a hollow laugh now, it won't soon. Trading with the EU from outside means obeying every rule with no seat at the rule-making table. Europe's future looks unstable, with political indignation everywhere demanding radical institutional response: how could we not be there? If we left, the same isolationism would sweep us out of the European human rights convention too. Do we want to be Belarus?
The referendum dilemma is brutal. Labour is staunch on staying in Europe, so why offer a vote on something it passionately opposes? Hold the line and hope to win through honesty and conviction, obliging people to vote on Europe in the general election. That's where democratic legitimacy lies. Labour hasn't said "never" because no one knows what might befall the EU project. But as shadow cabinet members say, if Labour fails to change the conversation and make the economy, growth and jobs the great decider in 2015, it will have failed anyway.
Here's the dangerous paradox: if Labour bends under pressure and agrees to a 2017 in/out referendum, Britain will leave the EU. After losing an election, the Tories under a Europhobe leader will fight for "out" with all the might of their stampeding press: a mid-term Labour government advocating "in" would be at its weakest. The irony is that if Cameron won the next election, he might be strong enough to pull off a "yes" vote. That's why, for the sake of the country as well as for its own reputation, Labour sticks to its "no referendum" policy. Ed Miliband does not want to be the prime minister to take Britain out of Europe into the wilderness.
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Bob Cesca: 13 Benghazis That Occurred on Bush's Watch Without a Peep from Fox News
The Benghazi attacks (the consulate and the CIA compound) are absolutely not unprecedented even though they're being treated that way by Republicans. So we're left to conclude the obvious. The investigations and accusations and conspiracy theories are entirely motivated by politics.
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Greek finance minister says economic recovery, return to markets seen at end ...
Greek finance minister says economic recovery, return to markets seen at end ... Washington Post ATHENS, Greece — Greece's recession-wracked economy should start recovering next year and its sky-high unemployment rate should edge lower from the end of 2014, the finance minister said in an interview broadcast Thursday. Speaking on state-run ... |
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Greece wants to return to bond market after massive rally
Greece wants to return to bond market after massive rally MarketWatch (blog) Greece, long-time pariah of the global bond markets, finally has some positive news to share. Greek government bond yields are at their lowest levels since the nation defaulted on its debt last year as part of its restructuring package. Around this ... |
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US squares up to Germany over austerity and banking union
George Osborne to host G7 summit in UK as Washington pushes Berlin to loosen purse strings and boost domestic demand
George Osborne has warned finance ministers from the world's largest economies that they must "nurture" the global economic recovery, as the US prepared to square up to Germany over its austerity plans at a G7 meeting in Buckinghamshire on Friday.
While Osborne, who will host the two-day meeting, stressed that the countries attending have "more in common than separates us", US officials said they would use the meeting to call on Berlin to relax its stringent austerity policies and boost its own domestic demand, in response to more than three years of single currency crisis.
And in a less direct dig at the Merkel government, Washington also called for the faster implementation of the proposed banking union across the eurozone.
"Strengthening European demand is the most important immediate imperative in reviving growth in the advanced economies and thereby global growth," said a senior US Treasury official.
"Increased demand in Germany would not only provide relief to its euro area partners, but also spur the world economy. There are many ways to support demand such as by supporting faster wage growth and greater homeownership – both areas where there is space to act."
But at a conference in London on Thursday organised by the Business department, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said it must be the priority for governments to reduce their borrowing to regain confidence. He said the determination of Berlin to balance its budget had not only won support from international lenders but also German businesses and consumers, who felt able to invest once they saw the public finances were sustainable.
Schäuble said the focus on austerity meant a recovery was gathering pace. In a response to questions about the recession in the eurozone at the Global Investment conference he said: "The crisis of confidence is not solved, but the situation is improved. Even Greece is achieving remarkable success," he said.
Given the backlash against austerity in Europe, however, the Americans can rely on support from the French, increasingly at odds with the Germans over the euro crisis, the new Italian government, and the Spanish.
Jack Lew, the new US Treasury secretary, will demand a "recalibration" of German-led austerity policies in the eurozone. The Americans welcomed the shift in policy in Brussels and Berlin giving the French, Spanish, and Dutch more time to cut their budget deficits under the euro rulebook, but demanded more.
"The consolidation path should be stretched out in some countries, and those with fiscal space should shift to supporting demand. We welcome indications that France, Spain and the Netherlands will be given additional time to meet their budget targets, but there is room to do more in the near term," the senior official said. "The focus needs to shift to boosting demand and employment."
Christine Lagarde, who shared a platform with Schäuble and Osborne at the London conference, said the eurozone was in the bottom tier of a three-speed global recovery and was in danger of becoming a third-tier economy.
The IMF boss urged leaders to "do their homework" to find ways to promote growth and prevent the eurozone from slipping behind the US and developing nations.
Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday endorsed legislation putting the ECB in charge of supervising eurozone banks. But Berlin is hostile to further moves that would share risk and liability across the eurozone banking sector, such as pooled funds for winding up failed banks and spreading responsibility for guaranteeing savers' deposits. The latter is viewed as a no-go area in Germany while Berlin takes the view that a bank resolution system should be essentially national rather than European.
The German finance ministry has been arguing for the past fortnight that a full eurozone banking union would need a renegotiation of EU treaties, an arduous and lengthy process. The eurozone agreed in June last year to create the banking union and to use bailout funds to recapitalise weak banks directly without adding to governments' debt levels. But the Germans then delayed and diluted the policy which is to be revisited at an EU summit next month.
Washington voiced exasperation. "It is important to move forward with full banking union. Last year, European leaders vowed to break the feedback loop between banks and sovereigns, but momentum has waned," said the senior official.
"Recent events in Cyprus highlight the importance of Europe redoubling efforts toward a full banking union, including not only a single supervisory mechanism but also resolution authority and recapitalisation capacity along with a backstop for national deposit insurance, so as to build a framework for oversight and risk sharing across the euro area that matches the cross-border reach of the banking sector, restores confidence, and restarts credit."
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Portugal's unemployment rate hits 18%
Portugal's first quarter figures reveal spike in unemployment rates, with government cuts expected to harm growth further
Bailed-out Portugal added to the unemployment woes of southern Europe on Thursday as the country's jobless rate hit a startling 18% of the working population.
The first quarter figures from the national statistics institute revealed that youth unemployment had soared even higher, with 43% of the under 25s who are not studying now unable to find work.
"It is a dramatic and brutal increase," said Helena Pinto, a deputy for the Left Bloc party, who also pointed to a leap in emigration by people desperate to find work.
Portugal's economy is expected to shed yet more jobs and shrink by a further 2.3% this year, as prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho's government forces ever-deeper austerity on the country at the bidding of the troika of lenders who keep it afloat - the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.
Portugal has now been in recession for almost three years and Passos Coelho's announcement last week that he would cut another €4.8bn spending over the next three years is expected to harm short-term growth further.
Recent measures include the decision to sack one in twenty public employees, increase civil service working week from 35 to 40 hours and raise the retirement age by a year to 66. On Thursday government sources let it be known that civil service pensions may also suffer as the country tries to plug holes in the social security system.
But austerity has so far failed to achieve its main target of taming the country's budget deficit, which increased last year from 4.4% of GDP to 6.4%.
Last month the country's constitutional court threw out €5.8bn in cuts to, amongst other things, civil service pay and sickness benefits.
A troika mission is this week studying government measures designed to replace those cuts and study Portugal's progress since it requested a bailout in April 2011.
There was better news earlier this week with the government selling ten year bonds on Tuesday for the first time since the bailout, raising €3bn.
The partial return to markets, where it offered 5.7% interest, was seen as a sign of potential recovery in a country which needed €78bn of bailout money to escape bankruptcy after its debt rating was reduced to junk status. Officials said it could have sold three times as much debt this week, raising hopes that Portugal could wean itself off aid next year.
"We have not only completely got the financing we need for this year, we've also started gathering the financing we need in 2014 so as to ensure we can exit the bailout program successfully," finance minister Vitor Gaspar said.
The government forecasts a third straight year of recession in 2013 and the European commission see unemployment rising to 18.5%.
As austerity measures fail to spark growth in other southern European countries, the troika has shown some slight signs of softening and recently extended the repayment period for Portugal's bailout loans by an average of seven years - but it has to produce cuts to compensate for the constitutional court decision first.
Meanwhile figures from Greece on Thursday showed youth unemployment rose above 60% for the first time in February, reflecting the pain caused by the country's crippling recession after years of austerity under its international bailout.
Greece's jobless rate has almost tripled since the country's debt crisis emerged in 2009 and was more than twice the euro zone's average unemployment reading of 12.1% in March.
While the overall unemployment rate rose to 27%, according to statistics service data released on Thursday, joblessness among those aged between 15 and 24 jumped to 64.2% in February from 59.3% in January. A year ago in March 2012 youth unemployment was 54.1%.
Athens has lowered the minimum monthly wage for those under 25 years by 32% to about €500 to entice hiring.
Greece's economy is in its sixth year of recession and expected to slump by 4.2 to 4.5% this year.
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Greek youth unemployment hits 64 per cent
Greek youth unemployment shot to a record 64 per cent in February, underscoring the dire state of the recession-hit economy despite signs of improving business sentiment.
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SKAG Has Binding Ties To Greece
SKAG Has Binding Ties To Greece Greek Reporter Over the past three decades, the company has become the market leader in Greece and a strong player in many other international markets. SKAG products can be found in more than countries on all continents, primarily focused in South East Europe, the ... |
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Greece Gets 5 Colleges In Top 200
Greece Gets 5 Colleges In Top 200 Greek Reporter 5544 The National Technical University of Athens ranks 25th among the top Civil and Structural Engineering universities worldwide, according to one of the most authoritative international measurements. Apart from the University of Athens, the results ... |
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Greek unemployment climbs to 27 percent
 Raw Story | Greek unemployment climbs to 27 percent Raw Story Greek unemployment climbed to 27 percent of the workforce in February compared with 26.7 percent a month earlier, the state statistics agency said on Thursday. The number of unemployed rose to 1,320,189 while 3,568,186 were registered as employed. |
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Greece Police K9 To Be Named For Fallen Webster Firefighter
 News 10NBC | Greece Police K9 To Be Named For Fallen Webster Firefighter 13WHAM-TV Greece, N.Y. - The Greece Police department is naming its newest K9 unit dog after a fallen firefighter. The German Sheppard will be named "Chip" after Lt. Mike Chiapperini. Chiapperini was killed in the ambush on first responders in Webster on ... Greece K9 unit named in memory of Webster Police lieutenant killed in ... K-9 to be Named Chip After Lt. Mike Chiapperini K-9 officer to be named for 'Chip' Chiapperini |
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