Briefings
Greece, the neverending crisis
A deepening crisis
-
Greece
Shipwreck has been avoided
9 March 2012146To Ethnos Athens -
Greece
No room for error
21 February 201210To Ethnos Athens -
Eurozone crisis
Impunity rules banana republic of Greece
20 February 201249De Morgen Brussels -
Greece
One step closer to nowhere
13 February 201293To Ethnos Athens -
Eurozone
Greece retires...
9 February 201242To Vima Athens -
4 January 20128PresseuropPresseurop
-
Debt crisis
Greece and Italy, two parallel destinies
11 November 20115Eleftherotypia Athens -
7 November 201112Eleftherotypia Athens
-
2 November 20116To Ethnos Athens
-
Greece
A tragic farce
13 September 20113Ta Nea Athens -
Debt crisis
What can Greece do now?
6 September 201113To Ethnos Athens -
5 September 2011PresseuropI Kathimerini
-
Greece
Final warning for Athens
19 May 2011PresseuropFinancial Times Deutschland -
9 May 2011Libération Paris
-
Greece
Toward debt restructuring
6 April 2011PresseuropFinancial Times Deutschland -
30 March 2011PresseuropI Kathimerini
-
23 February 2011Ta Nea Athens
-
Debt
Return of the PIG
10 September 20101PresseuropHandelsblatt -
23 April 2010PresseuropLes Echos
-
16 April 2010PresseuropThe Economist
-
9 April 20104Presseurop
-
8 April 2010PresseuropLa Tribune
-
GREEK CRISIS
The eurodrama is over – for now
26 March 2010Presseurop -
Greece
Time for painful changes
11 February 20101Le Figaro Paris -
Crisis
PIGS trying to get wings
4 February 20107Presseurop -
Economic crisis
Tough love for the Greeks
26 January 20103La Stampa Turin -
15 December 2009Der Spiegel Hamburg
-
Greece
After Dubai, is Athens next?
9 December 20091Presseurop -
Economic crisis
Dr Brussels reads Greek patient riot act
1 December 2009PresseuropEleftherotypia
Having succeeded in convincing between 85% and 95% of its creditors to write down part of its debt, the Greek government has finally accomplished one of the tasks expected of it. But now it will have to convince the people that the sacrifices it has demanded will not be vain. 
In a meeting that lasted into the small hours of Tuesday, February 21, the Eurogroup finally adopted a second bailout plan for Greece of €130 billion with an additional €107 billion in cancelled debt. But failing a genuine economic development plan, this sum will not be sufficient to put the country back on its feet, warns Greek daily To Ethnos. 
The greatest problem facing Greece is not lack of money but a clientelist system that is accountable to no-one, writes a Greek journalist. 
The new austerity plan demanded by the EU and the IMF was passed by the Greek Parliament on February 12 against a backdrop of demonstrations and violence. But the plan solves nothing and leaves the Greeks without an answer on their future, regrets an editorialist. 
Agree to new austerity measures or risk being kicked out of the eurozone: that’s the alternative presented to Athens on the day the euro group is meeting. It’s a situation Greek politicians have failed to avoid, regrets To Vima. 
In Athens and in Rome, the crisis has swept away elected leaders, replacing them with technocrats whose main mission is to implement austerity plans demanded by Brussels and the markets, which their predecessors were unable to apply. 
The 6 November agreement on the formation of a government to be supported by both the left and right has temporarily put an end to the crisis prompted by the idea of organising a referendum on the Greek bailout. However, most of the problems faced by the Greek population will remain unresolved. 
In response to the dissent of his people, the Greek Prime Minister has chosen to organise a referendum instead of calling for early general elections. His bid to safeguard his future will mean that the Greek population will faced with a simplistic choice. 
Embed a tax into electricity bills: the most recent proposal from the government is an admission of failure of the measures taken in the last year and a half, writes Ta Nea. And the worst of it is that some officials are refusing to implement it. 
Everyone now grasps that the Greek government cannot reduce its debt as promised, and the news has rattled the financial markets. In Athens there’s a feeling of helplessness in the air, as captured in this editorial in To Ethnos. 
For several weeks, erroneous information about the Greek economy has been circulated to destabilise Athens. The latest hoax to date was Spiegel Online’s 6 May publication of a report about a secret Eurogroup meeting to discuss Greece’s exit from the euro. The question is: who stood to gain from the crime? 
On a visit to Berlin on 22 February, the Greek Prime Minister was hoping to obtain more time for the reimbursement of his country’s bailout package. However, in a context of mounting social dissent and pressure from European bankers, EU member states have postponed any decision on the issue until the end of March. 
Market speculation in the past days is endangering Greece's ability to restructure its public finances. By sapping creditor confidence, speculators have made it tougher for Athens to implement the rescue plan approved at the end of March by Eurozone countries and, once again, have put Athens under pressure. 
On 25 March the eurozone heads of state finally assented to bail out Greece, putting an end to the international psychodrama that had been wearing on for months. And yet the rescue package is far from ideal, with plenty of strings attached, and the wound that has opened up inside the Union will take time to heal, recaps the European press. 
While Europe's 27 member states meet in Brussels to attempt to save the Greek economy, workers have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against a package of austerity measures announced by the government. But in a country where tax fraud is rampant, people will have to accept painful changes if the state is to remain viable. 
The four weakest countries in the eurozone – Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, whose initials form the acronym PIGS – are making efforts to stabilise their economic situation. They may be going about it in different ways, but the European press reckons that they are all prey to the same uncertainties. 
Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece is proving to be a major headache for the European Union. Writing in La Stampa, economic analyst Franco Bruni argues that to save the credibility of the single currency, the Union needs to centralise policy, even to the point of over-riding national autonomy on economic issues. 
In Berlin and Brussels there is growing doubt over whether Greece can solve its debt problems without external help. If nothing is done, the country risks bankruptcy — with unforeseeable consequences for the European currency. 
Faced with runaway public debt, rampant tax evasion and a gaping hole in the pension coffers, to name just a few national woes, Greece is on the brink of bankruptcy, says the European press. And it fears the repercussions for the euro and a potential domino effect on fiscally shaky countries. People hit first
-
Greek crisis
Thessaloniki shows the way forward
8 March 201212Die Zeit Hamburg -
Eurozone crisis
How Brussels is destroying Greece
17 February 2012102The Daily Telegraph London -
16 February 201231To Vima Athens
-
Greek crisis
Brussels’ fatal therapy
15 February 201296Die Zeit Hamburg -
30 January 201214Libération Paris
-
Arms industry
Greece still splashes out billions on defence
11 January 201234Die Zeit Hamburg -
Emigration
The Greek exodus to Australia
22 December 201115The Guardian London -
28 November 20114Expressen Stockholm
-
Crisis eurozone
The real Greek tragedy – its rapacious oligarchs
9 November 20119Financial Times London -
Greece
A financial genocide
22 September 201127Die Presse Vienna -
19 September 20117To Vima Athens
-
12 September 20111PresseuropEleftherotypia
-
Debt crisis
Greece in no state to pay
2 September 201113Libération Paris -
2 September 20111The Guardian London
-
5 August 2011The Guardian London
-
19 July 2011The New York Times New York
-
Greek crisis
Athenians take Syntagma Square
16 June 20112Eleftherotypia Athens -
Debt crisis
Democracy comes home to Greece
16 June 20114The Guardian London -
Greece
Life in a time of Troika
1 June 2011To Vima Athens -
Greece
Desperate and resigned
3 May 2011Libération Paris -
26 April 20111To Vima Athens
-
Greece
A country unraveling
18 April 20111To Vima Athens -
Greece
Give the young a chance
15 March 2011I Kathimerini Athens -
Greece
The wrath of a people
11 March 2011To Vima Athens -
4 August 20101Der Spiegel Hamburg
-
26 May 20102Ta Nea Athens
-
Greece
A nation in shock
6 May 20101Presseurop -
Greece
Almost a revolution
6 May 20101To Ethnos Athens -
Greek crisis
Greece is winding back the clock
3 May 20103To Ethnos Athens -
Greece
IMF, no thanks
21 April 20102To Vima Athens -
Economy
No appetite for austerity
18 March 20102International Herald Tribune Paris
The Greek capital is bogged down in grievances over recession and the country’s loss of autonomy. But further east, in the Thessaloniki region, new business ideas are cropping up – and new hopes blooming. Die Zeit visited the Greeks who are trying to live off the fruits of their own hard work.
Sunk into a violent depression, Greece is being bled dry by an “incompetent” EU and its “callous” Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, accuses Peter Oborne, in a vehement broadside. 
In debt and suffering from anxiety and depression, many Greeks are turning to Ekpizo help centres for moral support. To Vima reports from a group therapy session in Athens. 
The Euro Group has postponed its decision on whether or not to grant a new aid package to Greece, fearing that the austerity plan adopted by Athens will not be implemented. But rather than the brutal slashing imposed by Brussels, the country needs to be restructured. And rather than being stigmatised, it is in need of solidarity. 
While negotiations on the write-down of Greek debt remain ongoing, Athens city hall is supplying two meals a day to jobless workers who are now threatened with famine in the wake of austerity measures: a situation that some Greeks readily compare with the occupation of the country during World War 2. 
Frigates, tanks and submarines: Greece may be teetering on the brink, but the bite of austerity hasn’t come near its military. And Germany is profiting from it. 
For young Europeans from crisis stricken states, booming Australia has become a new land of opportunity. This is especially true for a new generation of Greek graduates, joining the largest expatriate Greek community in the world. 
In a country destabilised by the crisis, the 3rd Athens Biennale contemporary art festival has been largely overlooked. However, a Swedish journalist argues that the exhibition offers an opportunity to appreciate the urgency of the moment. 
A network of corrupt clans control key sectors of Greek economy, and stand to profit most from the country’s continued disarray, writes the author of McMafia. 
Are the Greeks not sufficiently keen on saving? A Viennese lawyer living in Athens has observed the daily life of the Greeks and come to the conclusion: they save to death. 
On 19 September, the Greek government announced new cuts designed to convince its partners to hand over the 6th tranche of international aid. Meanwhile in the streets of Athens, more and more people are searching for a cheap way to feed themselves. 
Greek debt is now out of control. This disturbing conclusion, issued by a parliamentary committee, comes from Athens itself. Asphyxiated by a recession severer than expected and undermined by the black economy, the country looks unlikely to meet its repayment deadlines. 
Are the brilliantly strange films of Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari a product of Greece's economic turmoil? And will they continue to make films in this troubled country? 
Faced with the bleak realities of unpaid wages, bankrupt businesses, and mass unemployment, the Greeks are increasingly turning to civil disobedience. Is Greece in the throes of a political paradigm shift? The Guardian reports from Thessaloniki. 
As part of his package of austerity measures voted in June, the Greek PM plans to sell off state assets like the national electricity board. But in a manner symptomatic of how deeply intertwined his country’s various forces are, he faces the hostility of a union his own party helped create. 
On 15 June, tens of thousands of people marched to the parliament in Athens, where the Greek "Angry Ones" have been camping for the last three weeks. Although the protest was largely peaceful, there were a number of skirmishes with police. Eleftherotypia reports. 
While Greece’s PM George Panpandreou struggles to push through a second round of crippling austerity measures, the capital’s Syntagma Square has become a model of direct democracy, writes a Greek columnist, where Athenians of all ideologies, ages, occupations come to express their outrage. 
Gone are the days of going out and shopping, trouble-free travel and early evening drinks in outdoor cafes. Bills and surgery have been postponed, and no more private tuition for the kids. Laid-low by the crisis, Greeks have learned to rein in their lifestyles, and everyday living in the country has become a sad affair. 
Worn out by repeated austerity packages, the Greeks have reached a point where they no longer believe in their government. While populism attracts more and more votes in the country, euro-enthusiasm has entered into free fall. Libération’s special correspondent reports from Athens. 
Produced by activists and distributed on the Internet, a documentary retracing the history of the Greek debt crisis, which highlights the responsibility of the country’s political elite, has prompted a lively debate. 
With new austerity measures announced against a backdrop of persistent rumours of debt restructuring and national bankruptcy, a Greek columnist worries that the choices being offered to Greece are being accompanied by the degeneration of the state. 
In spite of a softening of the conditions of the rescue package, decided by the Eurozone states on 11 March, the Greek population is increasingly pessimistic about the capacity of their leaders to overcome the ongoing financial crisis. A Kathimerini columnist points out that debate on the issue has overlooked the country’s major resource — its young people, who have been sadly neglected. 
After a year of austerity, George Papandreou’s government is still facing the risk of bankruptcy, sceptical financial markets and a dwindling sense of solidarity in other European countries. An editorialist expresses his concern over the upsurge in political anger among the Greek people. 
To refill the public coffers and fulfil its international obligations, George Papandreou’s government is pulling out all the stops – and cracking down on Greek tax evaders. 
Bakers in Athens have decided to lower the price of bread to 50 cents. The initiative could soon be imitated in other sectors in the country, where the decline in consumer spending has even affected the market for basic grocery items. 
The Greek press is in shock after three people were killed in Athens during a demonstration held by the trade unions against the government’s austerity programme. Three bank employees were torched by Molotov cocktails hurled into a branch office by hooded rioters, and several demonstrators were injured in clashes with the police. 
Now that anger with the country's political class and its austerity budget has brought thousands of demonstrators onto the streets, the Greek government must act if it is to avoid "an unprecedented crisis," urges columnist Giorgos Delastik. 
To Ethnos argues that the austerity measures to reduce public spending and the national deficit announced by the Greek government in response to demands from its financial backers – the IMF and the European Union – are not only brutal and unprecedented, but also unjust. 
Talks between Athens, the EU and the International Monetary Fund got under way on 21 April. But the Greeks are increasingly leery of the terms of the bailout that might be forced upon them. Greek daily To Vima fears the worst. 
From Greece to Ireland, the EU is encouraging members states to imposing painful cuts in public spending. But a growing number of critics are criticising a “cult of austerity” that threatens to push Europe further into recession. The impact on Europe
-
Greek crisis
Troika admits bailout can’t work
21 February 201211PresseuropFinancial Times -
Greek crisis
Europe is just as guilty as Greece
10 February 201256La Stampa Turin -
Eurozone crisis
The “Grexit” taboo has been broken
8 February 201213De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Eurozone crisis
Save the ECB from the danger of Greece
2 February 20129De Tijd Antwerp -
Eurozone crisis
The Greek trap
24 January 201214Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
15 November 201110Financial Times London
-
Eurozone crisis
And if Greece goes...
4 November 201113Le Figaro Paris -
Press review
Worst case scenario for euro approaches
13 September 20115Presseurop -
26 July 20114Ta Nea Athens
-
Eurozone crisis
No more hide and seek
20 July 20111Ta Nea Athens -
Debt crisis
Save Greece and be damned
24 June 2011PresseuropPresseurop -
Debt crisis
Democracy comes home to Greece
16 June 20114The Guardian London -
15 June 2011PresseuropTo Ethnos
-
Debt crisis
Why Greece will bring the euro down with it
14 June 201115The Irish Times Dublin -
Greece
Blood and tears
10 June 20114PresseuropTa Nea -
6 June 2011PresseuropTa Nea
-
Eurozone
The Greek debt headache
18 May 20115Presseurop -
Greek crisis
Germany braces to answer Athens' call
11 May 20111PresseuropHandelsblatt -
Greece
Lying will kill the euro
9 May 20113Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich -
Greek Crisis
Euro not out of the woods yet
3 May 2010Presseurop -
Greek Crisis
Playing poker with the euro
28 April 20101La Repubblica Rome -
23 April 2010PresseuropLes Echos
-
16 April 2010PresseuropThe Economist
-
Greece
Time for painful changes
11 February 20101Le Figaro Paris -
9 February 2010PresseuropTo Ethnos
The new Eurogroup meeting on February 9 is not enough to banish the spectre of a Greek bankruptcy. While Athens may largely be responsible for the crisis, the EU and its partners are not blameless themselves. La Stampa argues that their confused messages and the absence of any strategy have transformed a resolvable problem into an explosive chaos. 
At a time when Athens is still involved in debt restructuring negotiations with its private creditors, Neelie Kroes’ recent allusions to a Greek exit from the euro are a sign that European leaders are intent on preparing the terrain for such an eventuality. 
A Greek default can still not be ruled out, and it would place the European Central Bank in considerable danger. To avoid this, states should pay up and provide guarantees, believes economist Melvyn Krauss. 
In Athens, the war of nerves over the debt haircut is nearing a finale. The negotiations between private creditors and the government, however, are taking some dangerous stumbles. Before Greece gets €130 billion in aid, it must show some success with its reforms. And that, with all the good will in the world, cannot be achieved. 
The arrival of technocratic governments in Greece and Italy may well calm jittery markets, but could also help boost populist political parties who point to the democratic deficit at the heart of the EU, argues Gideon Rachman. 
What if Greece leaves the EU? Professor George Prevelakis argues that it is an eventuality that would prompt a new geopolitical upset in the Balkans. As for the EU, it would be forced to acknowledge its inability to “Europeanise” a member state of 30 years standing. 
With Greece progressively sinking deeper and deeper into crisis amid doubts about the country’s ability to remain in the Eurozone, the European press worries about the national and continent-wide consequences of Greek default, which appears to be increasingly likely. 
The new rescue plan agreed by the EU on July 21 has not helped to calm the credit rating agencies. To get out of their impasse, the Greeks must change their methods and push forward a development policy, writes an editorialist.
The extraordinary Eurozone summit on 21 July is supposed to put an end to the Greek crisis. A well-known Athens columnist argues that decisive action is long overdue, because the Greeks are tired of doing what they are told and obtaining nothing in return. 
As Standard & Poor's gives the Greek economy the lowest credit rating in the world, the economics editor of the Irish Times argues that if the country’s long history of political and economic dysfunction is a guide to the future, the eurozone’s 16 other countries are at risk too. 
Debt restructuring to save Greece: although it has yet to achieve a consensus among economists and governments, little by little the idea is gaining ground. The European press argues that the main priority should be to find a sustainable solution. 
That’s not the way to save the euro, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung. With their secretive meeting on the Greek crisis, EU finance ministers have gambled away the last confidence of EU citizens in their governments. This must have consequences. 
The bailout package approved on 2 May by the eurozone countries should keep Greece afloat for the time being. In the longer term, however, the future of the single currency and the governance of the Union remain in jeopardy, warns the European press. 
Governments and markets are playing a dangerous game of poker – to the death. At stake is nothing short of the euro itself, which, under fire from ruthless speculators, is liable to collapse amid the ruins of the Parthenon. And there’s one key player, Germany, whose nationalist strategy may well hasten the single currency's end. Editorial
How has the euro been dragged into an apparently insoluble crisis by an economy that represents just three percent of Europe’s GDP? How is it that a country which only a few years ago was wealthy enough to host the Olympic Games and import large quantities of the latest consumer products is now on the verge of bankruptcy and obliged to make social sacrifices on a level not seen since WWII? The Greek crisis, which began in late 2009, remains an extremely worrying a puzzling phenomenon.
A development that will have a major impact on the history of European Union, it has raised a number of problems which European leaders appear unable to resolve: in particular the question of a fundamental weakness in the structure of the EU, which has forged ahead with a monetary union that does not have the backing of a political union or a clearly defined mechanism for solidarity between countries.
With a European project that appears to be running out of steam amid disagreement over the extent to which wealthier European countries should offer support to their neighbours, and at a time when euro-scepticism is generating more and more votes for political parties, the continental social model based on the development of the welfare state is now at risk from austerity measures in Greece and in other countries throughout the EU.
While the government in Athens is selling off companies and assets to keep the country afloat, the Greek people are facing an uncertain future and falling standards of living. They are also being forced to rethink their relationship with the state which, all too often, is based on a dubious legal footing. With reports and analysis that take a close look at the impact of the crisis on country’s government and also on its citizens, this briefing presents a portrait of a country in a state of shock.
