How the world sees Greece
Minister: Privatizations are Greece's top priority San Antonio Express ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's three-party coalition government will try to get the economy out of its deep recession by encouraging private investment and making privatizations its "highest priority," finance minister Yannis Stournaras said Saturday. |
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 Bradenton Herald | Greece says will carry out reforms, privatisations Reuters Finance minister makes pledge in first policy speech* Warns of long and arduous talks with troika* Opinion poll shows Greeks split on sticking with bailoutBy George GeorgiopoulosATHENS, July 7 (Reuters) Greece must hit targets or risk losing aid: minister From Ireland to Greece: Tragedy and Renewal in the Eurozone Crisis Greek opposition leader says government won't last |
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The nation at the heart of the EU needs allies – it might be more amenable to revised membership terms for the UK than it admits
Last week's EU summit offered a glimpse of what the future could hold for Germany in an EU without the UK. With David Cameron coming under pressure to offer a referendum on the EU – whatever the precise question – Britain leaving altogether is no longer as remote a prospect as it once seemed. One of the biggest losers from a UK exit would be Germany, whose list of natural allies in Europe – and in the eurozone – would then look awfully thin. Berlin therefore has a huge incentive to make sure the UK remains inside the EU tent, even if that means accepting Britain getting a new deal in Europe.
As the eurozone moves towards closer fiscal union, the UK public is becoming increasingly frustrated with its terms of membership, and these will very likely need to be revised if the UK is to remain inside in the long term. At the same time, Germany is in the unenviable position of both being expected to take the lead on saving the euro and becoming increasingly resented for doing so. At last week's summit, the chancellor, Angela Merkel, found herself fighting a rearguard battle against the co-ordinated efforts of France, Italy and Spain, who managed to force some concessions over the more flexible use of the bailout funds.
Merkel's ambush at the hands of this "club Med" bloc is an early warning of what Germany can expect to see much more of as the eurozone integrates further, with non-euro countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Poland forming a separate core, and with Britain possibly out altogether. While the UK fears being outvoted by a eurozone bloc within the EU, Germany has the same issue within the eurozone. Proportionally, Germany has far fewer friends inside the eurozone than in the EU as a whole, with the bloc's centre of gravity skewed by the more protectionist and high-spending southern states. The decision of the French president, François Hollande, to reverse parts of Nicolas Sarkozy's pension changes is indicative of this divide in economic thinking.
Therefore, Germany has a very strong interest in keeping as many decisions as possible at the level of 27 member states. As Die Welt's columnist Alan Posener wrote, many European politicians are "trying to make the eurozone into an alternative system to Anglo-Saxon capitalism, a system of 'regulation and solidarity' without Great Britain but with Greece, Italy, Spain and the France of François Hollande … Great Britain is needed in Europe so that this nightmare does not come to pass".
While the two countries do certainly not see eye to eye on everything, the Anglo-German alliance has often worked well in the past, for example in defeating concerted attempts by Spain, Greece and Portugal, as well as the European parliament, to scrap the opt-out from the EU's 48-hour week enjoyed by the UK and others. Both countries have also adopted a common position on freezing the EU's next long-term budget, and there is still ample scope for more detailed co-operation on reforming the economically irrational farm subsidies or the so-called structural funds. In general, Germany needs Britain to uphold a rules-based internal market as Europe goes through a potentially highly defensive phase.
This means that, if push comes to shove, the Germans may prove more susceptible to UK arguments for revised membership terms than it is willing to admit publicly. A common response from EU-reform sceptics to any suggestion that the UK should seek a more flexible relationship with Europe is that other member states would never allow it, but this has never been credibly tested. Politics often comes down to being able to find the least worst compromise. It won't be easy, but arguably, the Germans have more to fear from being left isolated within the eurozone than they do from a new bargain with Britain. If the choice is between the UK leaving or getting some EU powers back, Berlin may – after a lot of posturing, negotiation and bickering – go for the latter for fear of being left bowling alone in Europe. That is to say, that Britain has more leverage in Europe than it may think. Germany needs Britain and vice versa. No one likes being without friends.
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Selling Off Greece to the Occupier OpEdNews The main issue being discussed in Greece today came from an announcement by the government-of-the-regime declaring that they plan to follow the instructions of the occupiers of Greece and forge ahead with the sell-off of Greek public property for ... |
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Greece hopes tourism will rebound amid lingering crisis Journal of Turkish Weekly Fears that Greece would drop out of the eurozone precluded many would-be visitors worried the euro will be replaced by the drachma. The new government reported tourist receipts have dropped by more than 12%, leading to a nearly 10% decline in arrivals ... |
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EU's easternmost country, just 0.2% of eurozone economy, takes helm amid rows with Turkey and over UK enclave
Perched on a bluff high above the sea, the ancient theatre at Curium is among Cyprus's most spectacular sites. It is here, at 8pm on Thursday, that the Mediterranean island will officially launch its first EU presidency with Europe's great and good gathering in the dramatic setting.
Cyprus is the EU's most easterly point and, at the height of the continent's debt woes, the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, and other senior mandarins are keen to put on a display of solidarity. Even cushions are being provided to ensure that the assembled dignitaries are protected against the Greco-Roman theatre's famously flinty steps. But no amount of comfort will hide the fact that Curium – once the favoured site for many a gladiator fight – was chosen precisely because it lies outside the EU, on the Akrotiri "sovereign base area", a slither of territory that is technically British.
For the president, Demetris Christofias, who will address the audience, the military reserve – among 99 square miles retained by Britain when the island won independence in 1960 – is a "colonial bloodstain". The veteran communist, like many on the left, wants the area – excluded from the EU when Cyprus joined the bloc in 2004 – to be returned to the former crown colony. In holding the takeover ceremony at Curium, he hopes to reassert the point.
It is vintage Christofias. Alone among EU leaders, the 65-year-old Cypriot politician still believes in the tenets of Marxist-Leninism. Assuming the EU presidency at a time of unprecedented upheaval for the 27-member union is by far the biggest challenge for a state that is not only young but, 38 years after a Greek-triggered Turkish invasion, divided to boot. For the first time ever an EU aspirant – Turkey – does not even recognise the country now heading the bloc. Since 1974, some 35,000 Turkish troops have been stationed in the pariah state of northern Cyprus, which is bankrolled by Ankara.
But for Christofias, the role of EU council president may well be a respite from a term in office that has also been plagued by misfortune. "Outside his own diehard supporters he no longer has any credibility," said Hubert Faustmann, who teaches political science at the University of Nicosia. "There is huge disaffection with his government … he is now perceived as the worst president to hold public office in the history of the republic."
Barely a week before taking over the presidency, Cyprus was forced to follow Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain in resorting to both the EU and IMF for emergency financial assistance. On Wednesday, as a 30-strong team of inspectors began poring over the island's accounts, it became glaringly apparent that the aid injection might be much bigger than initially expected. Reports suggested that as much as €10bn – more than half of Cyprus's total €17.3bn national output – could be needed only to shore up Cypriot banks badly hit by exposure to Greece. More would be required to rescue the economy.
The irony has not been lost on other EU states that a "broke and bankrupt" member, whose economy represents a mere 0.2% of the eurozone, is now at the helm of policy-making just when Europe faces its greatest hour of need. Suspicions that Christofias might not be the man to navigate the crisis have been further underpinned by his government's determination to seek loans from Moscow and Beijing in addition to rescue funds from the EU.
The decision to reach out to Russia and China – countries the Moscow-trained president openly admires – has raised doubts over the island's allegiances at such a delicate time.
"It is the sovereign right of every country to look for bilateral loans," the government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told the Guardian. "We will have more options to finance our needs. And nobody [in the EU] has said anything."
In Brussels, officials beg to differ. The woeful state of Cypriot finances has been widely blamed on Christofias, who has spent four of his five years in office refusing to enact punishing reforms that would affect his Akel party's traditional powerbase in the unions and public sector. Instead of reining in a civil service that accounts for a whopping 31% of state expenditure, the sector has continued to grow with employees enjoying formidable state largesse. Shortly after taking office the communist president ensured that Cyprus's overstretched diplomatic corps opened an embassy in Cuba.
The economy took a further blow when a massive blast at a munitions dump last August knocked out the island's largest power station, resulting in widespread electricity cuts. The explosion, which killed 13 people including the commander of the country's navy, was described as "a catastrophe of biblical proportions" by Christofias who was subsequently held responsible for failing to ensure that adequate protective measures were enacted to prevent the blast. Instead of resigning, the leader vehemently denied the accusations and stayed on.
With less than eight months before presidential elections are held again, Cypriot officials have warned potential creditors that there is little appetite for the stinging austerity meted out to the nation's cousin in Greece. "We have highlighted the need that they be particularly careful concerning issues of social and political cohesion," said the finance minister, Vassos Shiarly, after holding talks with visiting inspectors from the EU, ECB and IMF.
The Cypriot government has vowed not to allow "the Cyprus problem" to become an over-riding issue during its six-month stint at the helm of the presidency. But there are few who would contest that had the island been reunited between its majority population of Greeks in the south and Turks in the north, the economic turmoil it now faces may not have been so worrying. As a moderate, Christofias was widely seen as the biggest hope of resolving the west's longest-running diplomatic dispute. In her air-conditioned office in the divided capital, the foreign affairs minister Erato Kazakou-Marcoullis lamented this week that after 130 meetings between leaders from both communities and another 150 between chief advisers from either side, UN-brokered negotiations were "in deadlock".
It is a sad reality that those attending the celebrations in Curium will doubtless prefer to ignore.
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Investors see Greece, Cyprus and Portugal exiting Euro Forexrazor German research group Sentix surveyed around 1000 investors on Friday after the EU Summit. Greece... For more information, read our latest forex ne... |
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 Famagusta Gazette | Greek FM to Turkey: Stop Threats Journal of Turkish Weekly Greeceís new foreign minister has called on Turkey to stop its ìthreats and aggressive attitudeî toward Greek Cyprus and to help in the islandís reunification, as he met with Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias yesterday during his first ... Cyprus readies for bailout talks with EU, IMF Divided nation state set to enjoy its six months in sun Greek FM: Turkey's threats against Cyprus must end immediately |
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Famagusta Gazette | Cyprus readies for bailout talks with EU, IMF Atlanta Journal Constitution Cyprus foreign minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis, right, and Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos speak to the media during a press conference at Foreign house in capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Sunday, July 1, 2012. Dimitris Avramopoulos is in Cyprus ... Greek FM: Turkey's threats against Cyprus must end immediately Greek FM: Turkey making mistake over Cyprus |
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Famagusta Gazette | EU, IMF officials to Cyprus for bailout talks Atlanta Journal Constitution Cypriot President Demetris Christofias, right, meets with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos at the Presidential Palace, in Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday July 2, 2012. Avramopoulos is in Cyprus on a two-day official visit. (AP Photo/Philippos ... Greek FM: Turkey's threats against Cyprus must end immediately Greek FM: Turkey making mistake over Cyprus Turkey's EU Ties on Hold |
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Greece's new foreign minister says Turkey should promote the reunification of ... Canada.com NICOSIA, Cyprus - Greece's new foreign minister says Turkey must stop its "threats and aggressive attitude" |
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Greek media: Iranian FM was detained in Cyprus Iran Independent News Service June 28 – Greek media report that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi was detained at the air port of Larnaca on Tuesday. Iranian news agency ILNA ... |
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 The Hindu | Microsoft attack puts spotlight on Greek tensions Reuters * Gunmen ram van packed with gas canisters into Microsoft HQ * No casualties, ground floor gutted * Anger over punishing terms of international bailout * Greece to ask lenders for more time, less austerity By Harry Papachristou ATHENS, ... Assailants Attack Microsoft HQ in Athens Assailants ram van into Microsoft offices in Athens |
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 euronews | Greece: Hotel workers strike over pay and conditions euronews world news - Hotel and restaurant staff in Greece have taken to the streets in a 24-hour strike to protest at their plight amid the country's economic crisis. Crisis: Greece; hotel and restaurant workers on strike |
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