Members of European Parliament Slam EU Commissioner Moscovici on Greek Bailout Program

PRESS RELEASE

Members of European Parliament Slam EU Commissioner Moscovici on Greek Bailout Program

Oct. 5, 2016 (EIRNS)—European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici, who is in charge of the Greek bailout "reform" program, was slammed in the European Parliament for destroying Greece. He was testifying on the status of the Greek bailout program, urging Greece to work harder to implement the structural reforms demanded by the creditors. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left European Parliamentary Group, which includes Greece’s ruling Syriza party, gave Moscovici what-for, and then turned the heat on him.

Syriza MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis called on creditors to keep their part of the agreement:

"The Greek government has put in place policies to bring down unemployment, to bring about recovery, to put an end to clientelism and to put an end to corruption and fraud, but for these goals to be fulfilled creditors must respect their part of the agreement and provide Greece with debt relief. We have to show to the European people, especially after Brexit, that we are moving towards recovery, not more austerity."

German Left Party MEP Fabio de Masi called for an immediate end to the destructive policies that have allowed, with impunity, the exploitation of Greeks’ national wealth by banks and businesses:

"The longer the Troika governs Greece, the longer recession will last. French and German banks have been bailed-out through Greece, not Greek workers. Wages have been slashed, pensions cut, VAT [Value Added Tax] has been increased, and public property sold out. The German company Fraport even got a Troika guarantee for the purchase of Greek regional airports. You may call this competition; I call it theft."

Slamming Moscovici, Syriza MEP Nikolaos Chountis said,

"Mr. Moscovici, you are lying about the state of the Greek economy and the consequences of the third austerity package. For the EU, the Greek Government is the best neoliberal student in Europe, the best performer in privatizations and austerity. You are both hypocrites since you are privatizing the public wealth of Greece, in the name of ’fair growth.’"

Greek Syriza MEP, and former Olympic javelin medalist, Sofia Sakorafa aimed some well-placed moral javelins at Moscovici as well: "You have forced Greece to sell everything. You even required for water to be privatized. In seven years of austerity, you led unemployment to reach record levels—the highest in Europe—you pushed one in three Greeks to live below the poverty line, you made 300,000 young scientists become economic migrants and you turned pensioners into beggars. Now you are saying that if the austerity program is fully implemented, the Greek economy will recover. That is,"

Sakorafa concluded, "if destruction continues, progress will be made!"

The neo-liberal media managed to not cover all these statements by the MEPs. Kathimerini, Greece’s major national newspaper, published a Reuters wire that merely covers what Moscovici told parliamentarians. And nothing else.