How the world sees Greece
… defended the hard course towards Greece regarding financial issues and the … . Merkel also stated that the Greek government has changed its approach … agreement with the international creditors, Greece is expected to receive a …
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Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday condemned a surge in German attacks on refugee shelters and warned that the issue of asylum could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek deb...
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KOS, Greece, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Mohammed Ibrahim fled fighting in Afghanistan for a better life in Germany but found himself trapped in a derelict hotel on the Greek island of Kos. He has little food and water, but still hopes to find a way to leave soon. "All we do here is wait," the 18-year-old said at the abandoned Captain Elias hotel, a two-storey building with a crumbling exterior where hundreds of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Asia have found temporary refuge. "Hope is all we have. Allah willing, we will reach Germany," he said. The student said he has friends in Germany. But few if any of the migrants who are crossing to Kos from Turkey in inflatable dinghies want to stay in Greece, a country in economic crisis. Instead, they want somehow to get to the Greek mainland, and then head north to wealthier European Union nations in the hope of finding more help or jobs. (function(){var src_url="https://spshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?playList=519015311&height=381&width=570&sid=577&origin=SOLR&videoGroupID=155847&relatedNumOfResults=100&responsive=false&relatedMode=2&relatedBottomHeight=60&companionPos=&hasCompanion=false&autoStart=false&colorPallet=%23FFEB00&videoControlDisplayColor=%23191919&shuffle=0&isAP=1&pgType=cmsPlugin&pgTypeId=addToPost-top&onVideoDataLoaded=track5min.DL&onTimeUpdate=track5min.TC&onVideoDataLoaded=HPTrack.Vid.DL&onTimeUpdate=HPTrack.Vid.TC";if (typeof(commercial_video) == "object") {src_url += "&siteSection="+commercial_video.site_and_category;if (commercial_video.package) {src_url += "&sponsorship="+commercial_video.package;}}var script = document.createElement("script");script.src = src_url;script.async = true;var placeholder = document.querySelector(".js-fivemin-script");placeholder.parentElement.replaceChild(script, placeholder);})(); Kos, just 20 km (12 miles) from the Turkish coastal town of Bodrum, has been overwhelmed in recent weeks by migrants and refugees trying to enter the EU through its shores. Nearly a quarter of a million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. Nearly half have come to the Greek islands, the U.N. refugee agency estimates. Local authorities are struggling to deal with the arrivals. A passenger ferry brought to Kos to house and register migrants is giving priority to Syrians, who are treated as refugees as they are fleeing civil war. Those from other countries are often sleeping in places like the Captain Elias, which stands on the outskirts of the island's main town. There dozens of worn out mattresses are laid side by side in the lobby, where one man rests on the reception desk, covered in a bedsheet. Nearby, women dressed in headscarves watch over their toddlers as they sleep on the floor of ceramic tiles, trying to avoid broken glass strewn around. In what used to be the hotel garden, people hang their clothes to dry between dried up palm trees. Crouched over a bucket, one man is shaving inside a makeshift tent to shelter from the scorching mid-summer sun. As dusk falls, families light fires to cook rice and vegetables sometimes provided by medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Others try to sleep huddled next to one another on cardboard boxed laid out on the terrace, covered in heaps of leaves and rubbish. "There is no electricity, no children's place, no privacy," said Murcal Rezai, a 16-year-old girl from Kabul who arrived in Kos with her sister and parents. "The situation is difficult, so many cultures living together is not easy," she said. Julia Kourafa, a doctor with MSF, said the agency was doing its best to help but lacked the resources to feed so many people. It pitched a tent for a psychologist to offer support for people there, many of whom have fled violence in their home countries, but dozens of migrants quickly turned this into another place to sleep, she said. "People are sleeping packed nearly on top of one another," she said. "These are not good conditions." One evening in the past week, tensions flared at the hotel when two volunteers distributed food and water. Dozens jostled with one another for a bag of groceries, and Reuters reporters saw two men fighting over a bottle of water. "Captain Elias is the camp of the poor," said 22-year-old Ulan Mustafa, a Pakistani IT student who spends his days playing card games and football. "If Captain Elias closes, I can't imagine what we will do." He recounts his perilous night-time journey with a group of friends to Kos across the narrow stretch of water from Turkey. His own family has no idea of his whereabouts. "They don't know if I'm dead or alive,' he said. (Writing by Karolina Tagaris; editing by David Stamp) -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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When Google wanted to create a parent company, an umbrella to park its subsidiaries under, the selection of the name Alphabet caused some wonder, but not to those who know their Greek, especially Alpha and Beta. The post Google’s New Alphabet Company, Technology Draws On Greek Roots appeared first on The National Herald.
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Illegal immigrants wanting to get into Europe find Greece the closest and easiest stepping-stone, especially its beckoning islands. The post World Press View: Migrants Find Greece EU Gateway appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greece's socialist PASOK party joined the main opposition on Sunday in saying it would not back Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras if he calls a confidence vote following a rebellion in the governing party over a new bailout deal. Tsipras had to rely on opposition groups including PASOK to win a parliamentary majority on Friday in favour of the 86 billion euro bailout programme, Greece's third with international creditors since 2010. By contrast, Tsipras suffered the biggest rebellion yet among anti-bailout lawmakers from his leftist Syriza party, forcing him to consider a confidence vote that would pave the way for early elections if he loses.
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Alessandra Ambrosio, her fiancé, Jamie Mazur, and their two kids have been vacationing in Greece for about a week, and they're soaking up every ...
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Angela Merkel has used an interview to call for greater efforts to cope with a wave of migrants into Germany and other EU countries. She also expressed confidence about IMF participation in Greece's third bailout.
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A mansion in Georgia's affluent Buckhead neighborhood has a fun secret hidden inside the depths of its nearly 17,000 square feet. Plenty of real estate agents claim the houses in their listings are "built for entertaining," but this one actually is. Instead of a boring foyer, the inside of the mansion has what Curbed dubbed "an indoor party zone." Complete with a glass ceiling, pool, and hot tub, the atrium-like room has everything you could possibly need to throw a house party for the ages — including a Sphinx-like statue and a pool-side bar. Overlooking the atrium are multiple staircases and many feet of open and balconied hallways leading to the mansion's six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Aside from the mansion's "party zone" claim to fame, it has three front doors, a gated driveway, and a movie theater. You can see more photos and specs for the $2.9 million listing at Zillow.com. SEE ALSO: The 15 most expensive houses for sale in America DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook! Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 6 mind-blowing facts about Greece's economy
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Rubber dinghies packed full of migrants continue to arrive at the Greek island of Kos as Syrian refugees started boarding a passenger ship last night.
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Greek authorities say they have started resettling migrants living in tents in a park in the capital Athens, but many are wary and have moved out ahead of the operation.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday condemned a surge in German attacks on refugee shelters and warned that the issue of asylum could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek debt crisis.
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Early Sunday morning, 321 Syrian migrants on the Greek island of Kos boarded the Greek passenger ship that will house refugees currently on the Dodecanese island. Thge island has received 7,000 migrants and refugees this past week. 2,000-2,500 Syrian refugees are scheduled to live in the Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship for 15 days. A group of migrants who had just been rescued at
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*By Andrew Chugg At the end of January this year the Greek Ministry of Culture commissioned various tests on the bones found in the burial chamber of the Amphipolis tomb. These were specified to include carbon-14 (radiocarbon) dating. Additionally, it is understood that carbon-14 dating of organic material found in the sand and gravel fill
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With the FIBA EuroBasket 2015 fast approaching, the Men’s Greek Basketball Team is in full preparation mode and Giannis Antetokounmpo is one of their leading stars. The Greek team were won a 78-60 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in a friendly game in Istanbul on August 15th. During the game, Greek Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis
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Greece’s love for wine is a well known fact. However, a recent map puts this affection into a relative perspective. According to a statistical map that compares annual per capita wine consumption in Europe, Greeks are the eighth highest wine consumers in the continent, as the country drinks 37 litres of wine per capita on an annual basis.
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An appalling crime took place on the Greek island of Hydra as a 67 year old male lost his life during a burglary. During the early hours of Sunday, burglars broke into the house of a Greek couple and tied the wife and the husband to a chair after drugging and gagging them. They then proceeded to rob
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#economy
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… said in a joint statement. Greece “has cooperated” and accepted conditions … parliament is needed to unlock Greece’s three-year bailout, which includes … periods of Greek aid loans will be conditional on Greece’s government …
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Thousands of Syrian migrants on the Greek island of Kos on Sunday began boarding a cruiseship that is to house and process them, in a bid to ease ...
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AN ITV journalist has told of the harrowing moment he tried to save a Greek man from drowning after he deliberately drove his car into a harbour.
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The political editor at ITV News has described how he tried to save an elderly Greek man who deliberately drove his car into a harbour as officials ...
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Farmhouse built a new house and moved from the opposite side of campus to join the Greek neighborhood. Alpha Gamma Rho razed its house and ...
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Greece's third international bailout, which was approved by eurozone finance ministers on Friday night, faces a stormy ride through some of the bloc's ...
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Angela Merkel has said she expects the International Monetary Fund to take part in a new €86bn (£60bn) bailout for Greece, as the German ...
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ITV journalist Tom Bradby has described how he tried in vain to save the life of an elderly man who drove his car off a harbour in Greece.
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GREECE: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday defended her government's hard line in negotiations with Greece on a new rescue package, ...
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Prisoners in Greece have seen their escape tunnel undermined by a dog. The break-out plot from a jail on the island of Corfu was undone when the dog, out on a morning walk with its owner, heard unusual noises below the ground in the woods near a prison.
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…but we will be monitoring closely for the implementation of the measures
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... Merkel told broadcaster ZDF that she was sure Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, would ensure the participation of the fund if conditions on Greek ...
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Heroic ITV news presenter Tom Bradby has described the harrowing moment he tried to rescue a suicidal Greek man who drove his car off a harbour ...
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But, she added, there was a “certain amount of hope,” in part because the Greek government had been performing better in recent weeks than it had in ...
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By James M. Dorsey A condemned Turkish stadium harbours a dark warning of the long-term consequences of ethnic cleansing or what Turks euphemistically call the population exchange almost a century ago when Turkey and Greece expelled their respective Greek and Turkish minorities. It is a message that has not lost its urgency as Turkey fights multiple domestic and regional battles against the Kurds, the Islamic State (IS) and the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) domestic foes, IS engages in its own brutal variety of ethnic cleansing ,and Saudi Arabia wages war against Shiite Muslims. Writing on his blog, John Blasing recalls growing up in the shadow of Izmir's 125 year-old Alsancak Stadium, where he watched his first soccer match and that hosted in 1959 Turkey's first ever premier league game. "While it is still unclear if a mall will be actually be built in the space vacated by the stadium, the story of the Alsancak Stadium also tells the story of the Turkish republic from 1923 up to today," Mr. Blasing noted. Critics charge that this month's demolition of the stadium that was declared unsafe because it was not earthquake-resistant is part of a government policy to replace historic sites with gleaming shopping malls and other commercially lucrative projects as well as the AKP's targeting of Izmir, a stronghold of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The government has yet to clarify what it intends to do with the land on which the stadium was built. "This country's renovations involve the destruction of monuments and buildings that are sold off by the hundreds," said prominent Turkish sports journalist Bagis Erten. Government plans in 2013 to demolish a historic park in the centre of Istanbul and replace it with an Ottoman-style mall sparked mass anti-government protests, the largest since the AKP came to office in 2003. Ironically, the shoe was on the other foot when the AKP rose to power. Turkey at the time had just fought an uphill and ultimately unsuccessful battle to persuade Saudi Arabia not to destroy an Ottoman fortress in the holy city of Mecca. Criticism of the destruction of the stadium comes as the AKP is looking at snap elections later this year after it failed in parliamentary elections in June to secure the majority it needed to form a government on its own and the subsequent breakdown of coalition talks with the CHP. Izmir municipal and soccer officials as well as a France-based Turkish businessman said the earthquake concerns could have easily been resolved in an effort to salvage the historic stadium that is crucial to the economic viability and football standing of the city's major clubs. Izmir and the Alsancak Stadium played a key role in the introduction of soccer to Turkey more than a century ago at a time that Greeks, Italians, Armenians, Jews and Brits were allowed to form clubs while Sultan Abdulhamit II banned Turks from playing the game because it did not stroke with his notion of national values and pan-Islamism. As a result, Alsancak's history and ultimate demise is symbiotic of Turkey's relationship to its religious and ethnic minorities. Alsancak was built as the stadium of Greek team Panionios, which relocated to the Athens and the New Smyrna Stadium - Smyrna is Izmir's Greek name - after the Greeks were expelled in 1923. With the departure of the Greeks, the stadium reverted to Turkish ownership. "When you uproot history, everything you plant in its place becomes rootless. When you reject your heritage once, then you no longer have to own up to anything. Today you can build a mall in the place of the Alsancak Stadium because you once made the Alsancak Stadium in the place of the Panionios Stadium... Because you have systematically confiscated the possessions of minorities since 1915, and called their new owners 'legal owners,' now every kind of attack is allowed," said sports sociologist Daghan Iraq when condemnation of the stadium was first broached. "If a country doesn't respect its past--in this case the close relationship between Turks and non-Muslim minorities during the Ottoman years--in the present, then how could you expect any historical structure to have meaning? How can you stop the rampant thirst for money through construction projects--in the name of the AKP's extreme capitalism--if you don't care about history? The stadium wasn't even owned by Turks before the population exchange of 1923, so now it can be taken from its new 'owners and who knows what will be built in its place," added Mr. Blasing. Messrs. Iraq and Blasing's comments take on added importance with Western unease with Turkey's concentration on fighting the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rather than IS. The renewed hostilities and Turkey's domestic political crisis have dashed hopes for an end to the 30-year long insurgency that has cost more than 40,000 lives. They also bode ill as the Middle East's Christian and non-Muslim communities are dwindling as a result of IS persecution, years of bloodshed and the region succumbs to politically motivated sectarianism. Germany this week insisted that its decision to withdraw two batteries of Patriot missiles and 250 troops from Turkey was unrelated to criticism of the Turkish military operations against the Kurds. The German defence ministry said the withdrawal was because Turkey no longer confronted a serious threat of missile attack by Syria. Besides fending off criticism of its confrontation with the Kurds, Turkey has also battled in the last year against a trend in the West to classify as genocide the 1915 massacre of Armenians in which some 1.5 million people are believed to have died. The destruction of the stadium which was home to four of Izmir's soccer clubs has introduced them to the Kafkaesque world of Turkish politics. The Turkish Football Federation rejected the clubs' licensing applications and fined them because they lacked a stadium. "Obviously, this is bizarre... But this is Turkey. The teams from Turkey's oldest footballing city are being penalized for a governmental decision to destroy their stadium. But the absurdity doesn't stop there. History is brutal...the wrongs only repeat themselves," Mr. Blasing wrote. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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The ferry Eleftherios Venizelos will house 2,500 in its rooms and serve as an area where local authorities will be processing paperwork for the thousands of migrants and refugees on Kos in Greece.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced confidence that the International Monetary Fund will join the latest bailout for Greece, saying she's ready to ...
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ITN journalist says he saw elderly man drive car off harbour wall and dived in to try to help but could not save himThe ITN journalist Tom Bradby has described diving into a Greek harbour in an unsuccessful attempt to safe the life of an elderly man who apparently drove his car off the harbour wall.Bradby, 48, who was recently announced as the main presenter of ITV’s News at Ten, wrote in a series of tweets on Sunday of how he saw the man drive his car off the harbour wall in Rafina. “Dived in, tried to help, couldn’t get him out. Completely shocking,” he wrote. Continue reading...
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek authorities say they have started resettling migrants living in tents in a park in the capital Athens, but many are wary and have moved out ahead of the operation.
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INMATES spent at least two weeks digging a tunnel to escape a Greek prison. But their plans were thwarted by a curious pooch.
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Andrew V. PestanoKOS, Greece, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Dozens of migrants have begun entering a Greek passenger ship as they seek asylum amid a refugee crisis on the island of Kos.
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By Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Alkis Konstantinidis KOS, Greece (Reuters) - Mohammed Ibrahim fled fighting in Afghanistan for a better life in Germany but found himself trapped in a derelict hotel on the Greek island of Kos. "All we do here is wait," the 18-year-old said at the abandoned Captain Elias hotel, a two-storey building with a crumbling exterior where hundreds of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Asia have found temporary refuge. Allah willing, we will reach Germany," he said.
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The carcass of an abandoned hotel on the Greek island of Kos has become a grim shelter for scores of migrants fleeing war and poverty as Europe faces its worst refugee crisis in decades.
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Compared with other paths for refugees crossing the Mediterranean, the journey from Bodrum, Turkey, to Kos is relatively organized and easy.
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… diving into a harbour in Greece to try to save a … elderly man commit suicide in Greece by driving his car off … elderly man commit suicide in Greece by driving his car off … had witnessed. Suicide rates in Greece are reported to have risen …
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BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel says there's no certainty the latest bailout for Greece will succeed but she is hopeful the country can overcome its economic crisis if it adheres to the agreements forged with its creditors.
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Refugees from Syria have begun registering on a passenger ferry moored in the harbour at Kos. The aim is to help the small Greek island cope with ...
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Germany's hardline Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Sunday hailed a change in tone in talks with Greece over its next bailout but warned Europe would closely monitor the pace of reforms in Athens.
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A migrant boy watches an Italian Frontex vessel carrying intercepted migrants arriving to the port of Kos, Greece on Sunday. The Greek government sent a ferry to serve as a temporary center to issue travel documents to Syrian refugees.
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Poland is in the center of Europe. Poles often stress that their country is in Central Europe, not Eastern Europe. The title of Norman Davies' immense study of Poland is The Heart of Europe. Indeed, throughout history Poland has been central to the European experience, from the medieval curriculum at Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the scientific theories of Copernicus to the agonies of the country's dismemberment in 1795 and the tragic role it played in World War II. As the locus of the Solidarity trade union movement in the 1980s, Poland was also central to the fall of Communism. After the post-Communist transition period, Poland has boasted of its economic success. It weathered the difficult years of transformation in the 1990s to emerge, by the late 2000s, as the only country strong enough to maintain economic growth during the financial crisis that gripped all of Europe. It now aspires to be an economic leader in the region and for Europe as a whole. As economist Ryszard Bugaj points out, however, Poland's economic growth of 4-5 percent has been decent but not all that remarkable. "This economic growth was not impressive against the background of economic history," he told me in an interview in his office in Warsaw in August 2013. "Most economies during transition periods grew faster than we did, including European economies following World War II. It is also extremely important to keep in mind that we had one-time reserves that we used, and we don't have them anymore. For instance, the one-time program of privatization was not optimal either from the point of view of efficacy or the strengthening of public finance. Another one-time reserve that is often forgotten was the good shape of the world's economy on which we were dependent." But what concerns Bugaj is not so much the growth rate but the relationship the Polish economy maintains with the rest of Europe. And here Poland's centrality diminishes. Small countries often have no choice but to align themselves with larger economic entities, as for instance the Baltic countries have done inside the European Union. But Poland is not a small country. It is the sixth largest EU country by population, and the largest country in East-Central Europe (twice the size of its nearest competitor, Romania). "In Poland one question has to be answered: is Poland trying to be economically independent, or does it want to be a part of another, bigger economic structure?" Bugaj asks. "Without making a conscious decision, we decided on the second path. And now Poland has become to a large degree a peripheral economy in relation to Germany. My personal opinion is that in the long term this was the wrong decision since we had another option. This option is still available, though the chances are smaller." That option would be, for Bugaj, the French model. "We should decide on a system that's rather social and somewhat statist," he suggested. "That there are no international enterprises in Poland is a warning sign. Such enterprises can only be established under a government umbrella. These kinds of companies were established in France. The French spend a lot of money in support of these state enterprises, and in terms of technology they are far ahead of England where such enterprises have almost disappeared. On the contrary, England before the First World War was a powerhouse in terms of technology while France did not achieve anything. In my opinion we should go down the 'French path.' I realize that there are only a few examples of countries where this policy was implemented successfully, like Israel. Another good example is Finland. We should look for such models." Bugaj once served in parliament as a representative of the closest thing Poland had to a Labor Party, something called Labor Solidarity. Although he still feels connected to the Polish Left - the pre-World War II non-Communist Left - his views have changed somewhat since we last talked in 1993. In our conversation 20 years later, we talked about the economic policies of the Left and Right in Poland, his take on the state of the Solidarity trade union today, and why he feels that he was naïve in his earlier belief in democracy. The Interview What is your perspective on the Polish economy? Most Western economists believe that the Polish economy is a success. What is your opinion? I am more skeptical. Of course, compared to other European countries, the Polish economy performed quite well during the crisis. It's a question of interpretation, about what the reasons are for such a course of events. Especially during the second phase of the process of transformation at the end of the 20th century, Poland built a specific model of capitalism that could be characterized as more market-driven than those of most European countries. It resembled more the American than the European model. Some of my economist colleagues think that this is the main reason why Poland went through the crisis so smoothly. I do not agree with this point though. I am not the only one, but we are in the minority. I believe that the reason we avoided the recession is that even though all essential components of the neoliberal economy have been implemented, we did not succeed in particular in eliminating the operation of automatic stabilizers. In 2009, 2010, and 2012, and even in 2013, public sector revenue decreased while budgetary expenditures have remained the same. Thus the deficit has increased. In the short term, this keeps overall demand on the same level; in the long term the increasing deficit leads to an explosion of public debt. Something similar took place among European countries. Also in the United States. The more liberal-oriented economists supported the idea of Poland entering the Eurozone. But we did not enter the Eurozone. In 2009, the value of the zloty weakened. The weak zloty exchange rate, in turn, increased export viability. Connected to that, according to the statistics for domestic prices, exports of course did not fall. That of course had an important significance. However, if we look at the long term, serious problems appear. Polish national debt is not that high compared to other countries in the world. Compared to Europe, it is somewhere in the middle. However, our constitution and the public finance bill include a provision on the so-called prudence threshold [which establishes a limit on public debt as a percentage of GDP]. I took a position against this during the creation of the constitution (in the last phase the Polish constitution was created through cross-party talks because its passage required a 2/3 majority vote and therefore compromise was necessary). At that time there was no constitution in the world that included such a prudence threshold provision. The only advantage of such a provision is its preventive quality. It cannot be applied in practice. Let's say we have a 5 percent GDP deficit in the public finance sector and we exceed the level of 55% debt-to-GDP ratio. According to the public finance bill, next year's budget should be balanced. Thus a recession would be guaranteed for next year, not to mention the social consequences that would result from the required decrease in public expenditures. This is a potential trap. In terms of the long-term effects of the transition, it was a success in many ways, but it has also been challenged. Yesterday I gave a speech at the annual meeting of the national committee of Solidarity and I mentioned that although the benefits of transition were distributed unequally, the transition can be regarded as success. Some of the delegates did not want to hear the word "success." A more critical assessment is that the transition established the "peripheral" structure of our economy. There is no Polish company with a global position in the international market. Not a one. And also a great inequality arose. There are also certain analogies to Greece. In the Greek scenario, they tried to replace taxes with borrowed money. In Poland taxes were decreased a priori. Now we have a regressive tax system comparable to the U.S. model. It might even be worse. At the same time, there is no social consensus around deep public expenditure cuts, and I don't believe there will be such in the future. There's no drama because we are receiving large transfers from Brussels. But there will soon be changes. We find ourselves in a dramatic situation if we talk about political stability. In the next election there will be very low voter turnout, just like the U.S. congressional elections (not the presidential elections). As a result of this and our parliamentary cabinet system, the winning party may have a problem forming a majority government. Poland is now on the horns of a dilemma. Respected Polish economists like Leszek Balcerowicz are not taking into consideration the social, economic, and political determinants. They only say "reforms, reforms, reforms," which means the neo-liberal program. But political stability is a very important factor for economic growth and development. Political difficulties can have major economic consequences. I am also afraid of the emergence of a large populist movement, and by populist I do not necessarily mean the leftist or statist movement. Populism can be liberal too. Therefore I think that [Former Minister of Justice] Jaroslaw Gowin, when he refers to the tradition of Thatcherism, does not know what is he talking about. He bases his opinion about economic reforms on strictly ideological judgments. I would say it is like with the attempts to reform the Communist system. You can try, but you won't succeed, and the effects of those attempts will be fatal. I'd like to ask you about Poland's dependence on the European Union. On one hand it is obviously good that there are additional EU funds, but on the other hand this dependence might be dangerous. What is your opinion? First of all we don't get as much money as one may think. There are numerous factors to be considered. It's not just our high dues. We have to take into account the fact that maintaining our relationship with the EU is very costly. For instance, the Agency for Restructuring Agriculture, whose only responsibility is to maintain relations with the EU, employs several thousand people. It is simply a middleman that distributes European founds. That bureaucratic apparatus costs quite a lot. Also, the dues are rising quickly, with the annual contribution of member states now amounting to around 3 billion euro. Of course, in the next seven years, a significant net transfer from the EU seems to be guaranteed. I used to work as a presidential advisor under Jaroslaw Kaczyński, whom I knew for a long time. When Poland was about to sign the Lisbon Treaty, I told him that it was necessary to distinguish between two things. The treaty would adversely affect us, but the consequences of not signing would be much worse. Brussels owns effective tools to punish us for using our veto power. Our choice when it came to various decisions touching on deeper integration was rather illusory. I personally believe that we should not enter the Eurozone (happily we did not do so). I guess it is still too early to decide whether the Eurozone project can be achieved. It is obvious, though, that European elites invested a lot into this project and will protect it at all costs. But it's an open question whether Europe is capable of creating a common currency. In my view: not in the near future. My view differs from the leftist-liberal standpoint of others. I consider that the idea of a common currency cannot be reconciled with a democratic order. I believe that democracy at its core is national. It is rooted in tradition, history, and the communicative codes of national languages. I don't think it is possible for democracy right now to function outside of the nation-state. If Brussels increases its power, that will just translate into an enlargement of the EU's bureaucracy. In the long term the Eurozone project has a chance of success only in northern Europe: Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, maybe France. But that is about it. There are significant differences in the economic structure between north and south as well as between the old EU and Poland and the rest of the countries. We should not also go further with the integration of the banking system. I made these suggestions to President Kaczynski. In theory we have a veto power, but to exercise this right could cost us a lot. We must not squander our veto power. Another important issue is the environmental program of the EU. For countries like Poland, this program is extremely unfair. Countries like France polluted a lot but have now switched to nuclear power plants while we, because of our delayed development, are still using conventional energy sources. The overall accumulation of our air pollution over the last several hundred years is nothing compared to that of Germany. Nonetheless we pay a lot since we have to pay for what we emit right now, not for the overall amount of air pollutants. This undermines Polish competitiveness, which used to be based on two factors: cheap labor and cheap energy. With the increase of wages, labor has become more expensive. The increase of energy prices significantly diminishes our competitiveness. You talked about populism. Obviously that's a very serious issue in this region. To read the rest of the interview, click here. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Heroic ITV news presenter Tom Bradby has described the moment he tried to rescue a suicidal Greek man who drove his car off a harbour wall.
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Starting over in soccer, Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) officials fired national team manager Sergio Markarian and director Giorgos Karagounis. The post Embattled Greek Soccer Cleans House appeared first on The National Herald.
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