Greek Deputy Minister for International Economic Relations Euclid Tsakalotos delivered a keynote speech on Monday at the Economist Conference on “Greece and its creditors: a win-win deal? The strategy, the risk, the outcome” and asked the country’s partners for more time as well as room so that the Greek government can prove it will keep its promises for the deep reforms that it needs. Greece, he said, spends a lot of time on short-term issues and faces financial asphyxiation as a result of the tough line adopted by the ECB, a “difficult situation that not only does it undermine the compromise but it has once more raised issues on the future of the euro.” SYRIZA and the new government, Tsakalotos said, have a pro-Europe strategy, noting this is not about tactics, as “the worst result would be the collapse of the euro, the increase of rival nationalisms, competitive devaluations, a clear repetition of the 1930s,” in other words, reasons that render a compromise necessary, which is what the Greek government is after. “The democratic legality is important for every economic and financial architecture, and the Eurozone is no exception,” he said, noting that a compromise solution both on an economic and political level requires a prospect for recovery and growth. “The previous Memorandum is over,” he noted and added that “SYRIZA has no interest in turning back to the Memoranda and if this ever happened, it would only benefit nationalists and extreme-right supporters.” This is something that “Europe should be aware of” and “Greece is not asking for special treatment but for equal treatment in a Europe of equal partners.” “On one side,” he said, “we need a monetary union that creates room for strategies of growth in the periphery and addresses the debt issue. On the other hand, we know that even if all debts were written-off, Greece would still have a problem unless it implemented a great deal of reforms in many sectors.” Referring to corruption and tax evasion, he said the government is prepared to deal with the chronic problem. After the end of his address, Tsakalotos referred to speeches of foreign economists saying that “they had many arguments as to how the previous Memorandum did not work out and that we need a change of course.” “Not all of them were certain this could be done within the Eurozone but they all said this was also a problem of the Eurozone and its economic architecture that needs many changes,” he said. “[They also said] that there is an opportunity now to discuss these changes with the SYRIZA government and how they can be incorporated not in populist demands but in the people’s demands for wages and pensions.” (source: ana-mpa)
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