Greek Prime Minister Papademos to EuroFora: doesn't deny Monitoring Merkel saw in October 2011 deal

*Brussels/EU Summit/Angelo Marcopolo/- Greek Prime Minister Costas Papademos, r plying to an "EuroFora"'s question, after Marathon meetings up to 2 o'clock after MidNight, with EU Commission, ECB and €uroGroup President Juncker, did not deny German Chancellor Merkel's reminder that a kind of "Monitoring" had already been foreseen by the October 2011 Agreement, in an attempt to help ensure its implementation, independently of these days' row about or against imposing to the country a "Tutor", as some called certain proposals of proactive supervision, raising "hot" issues of "sovereignity", etc.           

 
The experienced former ECB's vice-President, simply replied to "EuroFora"s observation that "Chancellor Merkel pointed out that a sort of Monitoring had already been foreseen by the October 2011 deal", without any denial, but merely by sticking to his line that "we did not discuss (during the EU Summit in Brussels) these points", i.e. apparently leaving an horizon open for some kind of jointly agreed, adsequate Supervision mechanism..

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French President Sarkozy :
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In an obvious attempt to calm last week-end's tension, and respect each others' views, searching an efficient way to find a positive solution, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, replying earlier to Press' questions, in an exceptionaly brief meeting with Journalists in Brussels, including "EuroFora", tried to make a crystal-clear Distinction :

- Questioned by another journalist if he believes that the decisions on redressing the country's financial situation should be taken by Brussels or managed in Athens, Sarkozy replied from the point of view of general Principles, in a balanced way :

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
- "It's out of question  : Greece's settlement can't be materialized but only by Greeks themselves, Democratically (i.e. by Elections),.. It's a Sovereign Country"  Sarkozy stressed from the outset.

+ But "they must respect the promisses that they have given", he added.
=> "In consequence, it's WITH them that things have to be done", he advised.           

                          
F.ex., "it's absolutely normal to have a Supervision, stage by stage, of the commitments undertakien by the Greeks",

 - "But it's out of question to place any Country, whatever, under a Tutorship""

"By the way, we spoke with the (German) Chancellor  (Merkel), and I can tell you that this is, precisesly, her stance, as she descriibed it to me. .. What you said (about "Tutors", etc), is not a position expressed, and even less supported, by Chancellor Merkel", he clarified.

 - "Nobody can place a Country under a Tutor, and manage it from outside. This wouldn't be reasonable, it couldn't be democratic,n and it wouldn't be efficient", Sarkozy concluded.

+ But, "this doesn't mean that there shouldn't be a Supervision of commitments", he clearly distinguished.

Meanwhile, the Greek Prime Minister gave us (at the EU Summit) a Report on the situation... , which wasn't discussed", Sarkozy went on to add.

                                                        
What I can tell you is that negotiations advance towards a positive Direction, and we (EU) have good reasons to hope that there will be a final Agreement, let's say, during the forthcoming Days", he simply said, (carefuly avoiding any negative wording, as he observed afterwards).

Sarkozy also said that it had not yet been fixed if final Decisions on Greece might be taken simply through the Ministers of Finance, or by a Heads of State/Government Summit, (f.ex. on March).

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German Chancellor Merkel :
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Meanwhile, questioned by many Journalists on Greece, the German Chancellor Angie Merkel, revealed that

   - "Immediately after the (EU Council) meeting, I rushed to the Press Conference, so that I can't tell you what is  really going on in a parallel meeting, where participate the EU Presidency, EU Commission, ECB, and (€uroGroup Chairman, Luxembourg's Prime Minister) Jean-Claude Juncker are speaking with the Greek Prime Minister,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
I think it's only appropriate.. The Troika is now in Greece, and we (EU) said that we must have this New Package as soon as possible,

>>> - "As regards the Monitoring Mechanism, we do need Monitoring on the package for Greece", Merkel stressed from the outset.

- In fact, already, "as we agreed on the 26th of October 2011,   EU Commission, together with the other Troika Partners, wil set up, for the duration of the program, a Monitoring process, which includes International Experts, Greek Experts, so that there may be as close Coordination as possible between the Greek Government and the Troika, which is to ensure the Fuil Implementation of the Program".

- "So, we already included, in our October 2011 conclusions, at the time, a Monitoring mechanism, that we are trying now to think how we could make it more Effective", the German Chancellor simply and logically added.  

- Therefore,  "it's not a Qualitatively New step. It' always keeping with the Spirit that we want to help Greece to come back to the path that enables it to stand on its own feet.

But, when we look at the somewhat emotional Debate (of last Week-end : See supra), it's more important to come to a Conclusion :

*- "The Greek Government will have to give its contribution to make this possible, and also, it's important, now that Elections (in Greece) are coming closer, that the Greek Parties subscribe to this program, (that) they feel a commitment to this program. The private Sector is participating in this, and it's also important that other partners stand by their commitments", she concluded, (but leaving apparently open the question how exactly this should be done).

=> "Still, it's in the Spirit of the Conclusions of the 26th of October 2011  That's how we are going to conclude this", Chancellor Merkel stressed.
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+ Questioned by an Irish Media, "If this Monitoring was really scheduled since October 2011, then, why had you to wait until January 2012 in order to speak about it ? And, is Greece so special, or would you propose to use the same Monitoring procedure also with other Countries ?", the German Chancellor became sharper :

- That case affecting "Greece has special features,  is special", Merkel stressed.

 - "In the sense that there is a Private sector involvement. That the sustainability of its Debt is particularly bad, and that is also very important, + And this Monitoring is only necessary  if a country, as regards the outcome of reviews,  has been found not to implement its Program, not to abide by the rules, and this was the case of Greece'(s PASOK Governments), but not for Ireland, (etc).

=> "That's why we discussed this special Monitoring process"

>>> "So, Greece is a special case, also in the sense that we (EU) also think that they can make it !" (i.e. succeed).

- "But, there are 2 particular features : Namely the PSI, and also the fact that they have not implemented the program.   So that, if it comes, in a next review, that the outcome again finds that certain things have not yet been implemented again, then for those Countries who are ready to put up Funds, for the Financing of this Program,  then, there is a great deal of Frustration."

- "And there are Questions that we have to answer. We have Parliaments back Home, we are accountable to them. We (EU Leaders) also want to be Succesful".

"If the Troika had told us that everything is on track, then we'd not probably have to say that it's so special. But, Reality has a way of catching up with you, there.

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 + Questioned on the "outstanding ISSUES that will have to be resolved", and "where improvement is necessary ?", (according to "Interim Reports" sent meanwhile by the Troika), Merkel focused on the fundamentals  :

- "There was one Debate that I found a little bit Curious, over the week-end, and a bit Misleading :

>>> - "If one has Greece'sd Program going more and more Expensive, then, one has to reflect on what one does", she explained.

- "We (EU) want Debt Sustainability in 2020 for Greece of about 120%.", she reminded.

- But, "Once a Program gets more Expensive, then we'd have to Spend More (in order to get Sustainability then). It does not reduces, but gets Higher. If these Programs get more Expensive, not Cheap, then, you've got to have also a higher contribution by the Private Sector in order to fill the gap, etc.,  this is what they are negotiating on.
So, I can't tell you more about this, and, quite frankly, we didn't even discuss this tonight. We only said that it has to happen rapidly, we had the impression that one was very close to the goal, but, without a term, we (EU Council) cannot decide".

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But, about the Timing, the German Chancellor simply observed that,

 - "On March, Greece wil need New Funds, and this has  to be agreed on the basis of New Programs".

=> "The (EU) Finance Ministers have to pass a Decision on this,  and we'll make proposals for Final Decisions. The Finance Ministers will meet about this", since Heads of State/Government "today, we don't have the Troika Report, and Negotiations have not yet come to a conclusion", she noted.

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+ Greek Prime Minister Papademos :
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>>>  Speaking much later, (at 2 o'clock after MidNight !) to Journalistsin Brussels, including "EuroFora", Papademos also said that Talks with PSI (private investors) and the (EU-ECB-IMF) Troika were due to come to a conclusion "towards the end of this week", (i.e. close to the forthcoming Saturday's  meeeting between the President of EU Parliament's biggest Group : that of ChristianDemocrats/EPP, a French MEP Joseph Daul, and German Finance MInister, Schauble,  in Strasbourg).   

                         
+ He also acknowledged that there are, meanwhile, some "Hard Issues" to be discussed with the EU-ECB-IMF "Troika" in Athens, while "Time is short", even if his Government is currently focused into meeting the "Target of Concluding at the end of next Week".

But Papademos refused to enter into concrete details on the particular points under discussion, prefering to merely highlight the fact that discussions touch both upon the need to further reduce Public Sending, as well as on "Structural Changes" and other measures in order to augment the country's Competitiveness, f..ex. by cutting Labour and production Costs, etc.        

>>> However, other, well informed Greek sources confirmed to "EuroFora" that certain key points, such as Privatisations, (promissed for the 1st time since March 2010 : See "EuroFora"s previous NewsReports), and particularly at least some 150.000 lay-offs "until 2015", in the disproportionate Public Sector agents, where there are many notoriously counter-productive cushy job holders and/or abusive, corrupted or even criminal political lackeys, massively and scandalously hired by Past Clientelism and/or Nepotism of Former Governments mainly of PASOK since the 1980ies, (See relevant, earlier "EuroFora"'s NewsReports), provoking a growing Debt, that 1999-2001 manouvers (f.ex. EuroStat's false data, USA's Goldman Sachs' swaps, "Socialist" EU Rapporteurs' over-optimistic predictions,  etc), masqued then, in order to get artificially re-elected on April 2000 a PASOK Government with less than 1% more, in exchange of closing its eyes on Turkey's controversial and unpopular EU bid, (then decided from December 1999 at Helsinki).

But the 2009 Global Crisis burst that huge Debt bulb, revealing the real situation, which has been since then, obviously exploited also by some anti-European networks, mainly with a few USA links, in order to harass the EU and "empoison" EU Summits (as German Chancellor Merkel and others observed), wasting precious Time and Energy until recently.  

All other previous and recent Plans had "failed", particularly by provoking more than expected Recession, thereby reducing State's Tax a.o. revenus,  since PASOK-dominated Governments never accepted to drop their own "clients", cushy-job holders, and/or political lackeys, (See supra), so that Austerity stroke mainly against Productive Businesses and to the detriment of Poor People, provoking growing Popular Revolt.

The mere spectacle of so revolting dramas as that f.ex. of an old Handicaped Mother, abandoned to live alone with her Unemployed Son, in a Household whose Electricity had been cut since September 2011 because they were hindered to pay the bill,  while, at the same moment, Thousands of counter-productive Cushy Job Holders and/or abusive/Corrupted Political Lackeys are blocking reforms by noisily refusing even to touch upon their .. "13th and 14th (sic !) monthly Salary", (some initially had even a ... "15th salary" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...............  , in addition, of course, to Paid annual Holidays, etc), resumes quite well the scandal !  

                    
Obviously, only an adequate combination of Justice and Economic Efficiency, by purging the Greek State from all those unpopular and counterproductive cushy-job-holders and/or corrupted/criminal Political Lackeys, most of whom should, normally, also pay for  Years scandalous and undeserved usurpation of Public Sector Jobs, could have a chance to find a Solution, by saving Production and Poor People, factors of Growth by investing and/or paying with all their revenues,  as well as by drastically stoping useless public spending.

+ Without expensive waste of Popular Revolts, but, on the contrary, with strong Popular Support, given the recent, spectacular Popular Revolts against Oppressive, Abusive, and Corrupted State Bureaucracy, which should be swept away by a Modern Alliance between Efficient Reformers and a Popular Anti-Corruption Movement, similar to the "Mani Pulite" ("Clean Hands") succesful re-generation movement in Italy (comp. World-famous f. Judge Di Pietro, currently a MEP, recent interview to "EuroFora".

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