Maria Damanaki, EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, has had a very unusual career. In her youth, she was a member of the Communist Youth, and of various leftist organisations in Greece. New Europe asked her how she sees from Brussels the fact that Greeks, her compatriots, are becoming more and more euro-sceptic.
Damanaki: To be honest, I find it understandable, up to a certain point. What happened to Greece is very unusual. Greece has lost almost 30% of its national product in the last four years. For many families the loss of income is 25 to 30%, unemployment runs at 30%, so we shouldn’t blame everything on the people.
New Europe: Who is to blame then?
Damanaki: I think that the EU, the Commission, the institutions, we all have our responsibility. But it’s a shared responsibility, the blame is also to be put on the Greek citizens, and on the Greek government, because, to be completely honest, Greeks have always spent much more than their national product, and now it is time to pay the bills.
New Europe: Weren’t Greeks encouraged to overspend by the EU’s neoliberal ideology?
Damanaki: This is true, and I have to say that the introduction of the single currency in the EU was done in such a way, that the gaps between the more competitive and less competitive countries kept widening year after year.
Greek governments were encouraged to spend in many areas, in military purchases, for example. So, the responsibility should be shared between the European Union and the Greek citizens. I don’t think the answer to the problem is less Europe, the answer is a better Europe, and more Europe. For me, the main problem isn’t Euro-scepticism, but the political forces that are against Europe, forces that try to destroy the EU, both from the right and from the left. These European elections are very critical: do we want more Europe, less Europe, or do we want to destroy what is there?
New Europe: Do you feel that there is still enough time left to change something before the elections?
Damanaki: There is always time for change. I have been a Commissioner for four years now and I’ve seen changes myself. When I took office, everyone was against solidarity between countries, they kept referring to debt problems, or fiscal problems. If you read the Maastricht Treaty by the book, then you can say that what we are doing now should be anathema. But little by little, the trend has changed. For example, we had the first program for Greece and the second program for Greece, with the second program being much better than the first, but at first we just weren’t ready for the second program. To be honest, when we came with such a proposal, the majority was against it.
New Europe: So you wouldn’t agree with the allegation that the Barroso Commission introduced a new liberal drive, with a heavy accent on banks, competition and markets?
Damanaki: Markets will always be there. They were always there and will always be there. What we have to find out is whether our policy does enough to protect social cohesion and make life better for the most vulnerable citizens. What can I tell you? I have to admit that the Commission may not have been ready for the crisis, so we have lost time, we made some mistakes, but after all that we have to realise that this Commission, despite the problems and the criticism, this Commission has mobilised almost one billion euros in order to save countries that were at risk.
We’ve kept the Eurozone together and kept receiving members into it. We could have done better, I want to be completely honest, I had some different proposals, some different ideas, we could have done better if we were better prepared and had different proposals by member states. It’s easy to put the blame on the Commission, which is flattering, because it means that the Commission is the most prominent EU institution, but we have to realise that the decisions were taken by the member states in unanimity. Even the Greek government voted for them.
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