EU Sagas of Greece, Transaction Tax Back in Focus: Brussels Beat

Jonathan Stearns
October 10, 2016 — 1:00 AM EEST

Bloomberg

Two European Union financial sagas return to the spotlight this week. One is Greece. The other is the financial transaction tax being pursued by 10 EU governments.
During much of last year, it would have been reasonable to bet that the FTT initiative had a better chance of succeeding than Europe’s efforts over half a decade to keep Greece in the euro area. Concerns about the health of Deutsche Bank AG and other European lenders add to the reasons why that’s no longer the case -- and just how far the tables have turned will be on display when EU finance ministers gather in Luxembourg on Oct. 10-11.
Euro-area finance chiefs will decide on Monday whether Greece, in its third international rescue program since 2010, qualifies for another disbursement of aid. At stake is a 2.8 billion-euro ($3.1 billion) payout tied to Greek overhauls in areas in such as pensions, bank governance and the energy market.

On Greece's Lesbos, migrants remain in limbo in squalid camps

by Reuters
Monday, 10 October 2016 15:20 GMT

Thomson Reuters

The flow of new arrivals has slowed to a trickle, but thousands of migrants remain in limbo on Greece's islands, in grim camps they liken to prisons
* Nearly 15,000 refugees languish on Greek islands

* Tents unheated, sanitation poor as winter approaches

* Local people say crisis has hurt tourism

By Karolina Tagaris

IMF says still engaged with Greece, no decision yet on bailout role

Sun Oct 9, 2016 | 12:21pm EDT

Reuters

The International Monetary Fund said on Sunday it is still fully engaged in talks to join the Greek bailout program and has not yet decided on what role it will take.

The IMF's comment came after two sources with direct knowledge of the Greek bailout talks told Reuters on Saturday that negotiations for the fund to commit financial resources to the program are making little headway and the IMF likely would accept a special advisory status with limited powers.

"We remain fully engaged, with the aim of reaching agreement on a program that the fund can support with a new arrangement, as requested by the authorities," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in an emailed statement on Sunday. "In this regard a mission team will visit Athens soon."

EU Sagas of Greece, Transaction Tax Back in Focus: Brussels Beat

Bloomberg

  Jonathan Stearns

October 10, 2016 — 1:00 AM EEST

Don't Miss Out — Follow Bloomberg On

Two European Union financial sagas return to the spotlight this week. One is Greece. The other is the financial transaction tax being pursued by 10 EU governments.
During much of last year, it would have been reasonable to bet that the FTT initiative had a better chance of succeeding than Europe’s efforts over half a decade to keep Greece in the euro area. Concerns about the health of Deutsche Bank AG and other European lenders add to the reasons why that’s no longer the case -- and just how far the tables have turned will be on display when EU finance ministers gather in Luxembourg on Oct. 10-11.

Greece’s 2017 Budget Plan Sticks With Robust Growth Forecast

But analysts say austerity and tight credit conditions are likely to weigh on economy

The Wall Street Journal

By STELIOS BOURAS
Oct. 3, 2016 11:21 a.m. ET
0 COMMENTS
ATHENS—Greece’s budget plan for 2017 sees the economy rebounding strongly after a seven-year slump, but analysts say continued austerity and tight credit conditions are likely to weigh on its recovery prospects amid uncertainty over the country’s public debt.

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos submitted a draft copy of the budget to parliament on Monday that is expected to be finalized in coming weeks after the country resumes talks with lenders on its reform program.

The 53-page budget sticks with Greece’s previous forecasts that the economy is expected to contract by 0.3% this year before growing by 2.7% in 2017. Many see these targets as too optimistic, saying the economy is now entering a period of stagnation, rather than growth, having shrunk by more than 25% since the debt crisis erupted in 2010.

To fix Greece, get your figures straight

 10/01/2016 12:29 pm ET
The Huffington Post


Michael G. Jacobides
Sir Donald Gordon Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, London Business School
Greece has been making headlines again - and for all the wrong reasons. Egged on by government propaganda, the judicial system has allowed a rather grotesque case to be made against Mr Andreas Georgiou, former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT). His alleged crime was using applicable international rules to report the Greek government’s budget deficit, which had the effect of increasing it by just under 3% to a whopping 15% of GDP. Confusing cause and effect, some hot-headed Greek prosecutors claim that Georgiou’s un-sugarcoated report caused financial and social damage, leading to the EU/IMF Memorandum. Several commentators have already pointed out that shooting the messenger is a spineless, head-in-the-sand attitude. Now we have to accept that only accurate, internationally comparable figures can begin to save Greece from its financial woes.

What’s Derailing Greece’s Plan to Sell State Assets? Its Own Government

The ruling Syriza party must privatize chunks of the country’s infrastructure to meet bailout terms. Many of its ministers are standing in the way

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI
Updated Oct. 3, 2016 12:09 a.m. ET

ATHENS—The day that Christos Spirtzis became responsible for much of Greece’s ambitious privatization program, he vowed to ensure it failed.

Greece’s leftist infrastructure minister has resisted every sale of roads, airports and trains, even though he and his government have promised to raise €50 billion from privatizations as part of the country’s international bailout.

“I hope the deal will not bear fruit,” the combative, chain-smoking former labor unionist said after his government, under pressure from Greece’s creditors, confirmed the sale of 14 regional airports to a German investor. He backed calls for local referendums to scuttle the deal. When he finally had to sign the contract, he did so “with a great deal of pain,” he told Greek radio listeners in a trembling voice.

Greece’s Least Wanted Man Lives in Maryland

Andreas Georgiou fixed the country’s fake stats, now he faces criminal charges.
 Robert Schmidt
  Bloomberg Businessweek

For 21 years, Andreas Georgiou worked in relative obscurity as an economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. When the European debt crisis hit and his home country of Greece began teetering toward bankruptcy, Georgiou felt a patriotic urge to help. In early 2010 he applied online to run a newly created office designed to clean up Greece’s much maligned economic statistics. He got the job, and in August 2010 he moved to Greece for a five-year term as president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority.

A New Twist on Greece’s Old-Style Dysfunction

A complex scandal signals Syriza is reviving the government-bank-media axis the party once campaigned against.
By YANNIS PALAIOLOGOS
Sept. 28, 2016 3:54 p.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in Europe about the rise of right-wing populism, about the clampdown on media freedom and judicial independence in places such as Hungary and Poland. But Greece’s populist government, led by the hard-left Syriza party, seems to share many of the same authoritarian instincts of its formerly communist partners, whose values Syriza claims to abhor.

More Parent Groups In Northern Greece Speak Out Against Refugee Children Joining Schools

One group suggested refugee children could be housed in a completely different location, but the Ministry of Education rejected their proposal.
 09/27/2016 03:45 pm ET

The Huffington Post


Danae Leivada
Reporter, The Huffington Post

Two parents associations in northern Greece voted last week to oppose refugee children attending their schools, publicly denouncing the government’s plans to include the children in the Greek education system.

Following the example of parents in Oreokastro and Filippiada, in northern and western Greece respectively, parents from two primary schools in the northern town of Alexandria voted on Friday against 60 refugee children joining their schools.

Greece approves plan to transfer state utilities to new asset fund

State assets, including water and electricity utilities, are to be transferred to a new asset fund created by international creditors. The plans have sparked demonstrations and public sector strikes across the country.

Deutsche Welle
28-9-2016

Greece's parliament passed new reforms on Tuesday night to cut pension expenditure and transfer control of public utilities to a new asset fund.
 The reforms seek to unlock 2.8 billion euros ($3.14 billion) in financial loans as part of the country's latest bailout program.
The reforms were passed by a narrow 152-141 majority vote in Greece's 300-seat parliament, after 152 parliamentary members of the ruling Syriza-Independent Greeks coalition approved the reform bill. Only one member of the coalition voted against the bill, along with all opposition members.
The reforms will see public assets transferred to a new asset fund created by Greece's creditors. Assets include airports and motorways, as well as water and electricity utilities. The holding company groups together these state entities with the country's privatization agency, the bank stability fund and state real estate. It will be led by an official chosen by Greece's creditors, although Greece's Finance Ministry will retain overall control.

Greece, lenders agree supervisors for new privatisation fund

Mon Sep 26, 2016 | 8:28am EDT

Reuters

Greece and its lenders have agreed on a five-member supervisory board for a new privatisation fund following wrangling over its composition, government sources said on Monday, meeting a key condition under the country's 86 billion euro bailout.

Athens had to agree on nominations with its EU/IMF lenders by the end of September to conclude a first progress assessment and qualify for a further 2.8 billion euros in bailout loans.

Amnesty: Refugees in Greece Live in 'Appalling Conditions'

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEPT. 22, 2016, 9:55 A.M. E.D.T.

The New  York Times

ATHENS, Greece — Most of the roughly 60,000 refugees and other migrants stranded in Greece are living in "appalling conditions" and face "immense and avoidable suffering," rights group Amnesty International said in a report Thursday slamming Europe's response to the refugee crisis.

The group criticized Europe for failing to fulfill commitments to relocate refugees from the countries they entered, saying only 6 percent — about 4,000 people — of the 66,400 relocations promised over two years have taken place.

COSCO sees Greece's Piraeus among world's top 30 ports by 2018

Thu Sep 22, 2016 | 2:10pm EDT

Reuters

By Angeliki Koutantou | ATHENS
China's biggest shipping company, COSCO Shipping, plans to ramp up container volume at Greece's biggest port in Piraeus by 35 percent by 2018, the port's new managing director, Fu Cheng Qiu, told Reuters on Thursday.

COSCO Shipping, which owns the world's fourth-largest container shipping fleet, bought 51 percent of the port's operating company last month for 280.5 million euros ($315.5 million), one of Greece's biggest and most strategic privatizations since a debt crisis began in 2009.

Potemkin Euro-armies

Grand talk of a “defence union” risks exposing Europe’s weakness
Sep 24th 2016 | From the print edition

The Economist

THE idea of a European army is as old as the hope for European unity. After creating the European Coal and Steel Community, the embryo of today’s European Union, the six founding members agreed in 1952 to form a supranational European force. But the plan was voted down by the French parliament; thereafter countries focused on gradual economic integration.

Greece’s Alexis Tsipras Seeks to Revive his Political Fortunes on Economic Promises

Europe’s most electorally successful populist has become nearly as unpopular as the Greek political establishment he ousted almost two years ago

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI and  MARCUS WALKER
Sept. 11, 2016 2:15 p.m. ET


THESSALONIKI, Greece—Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, languishing in polls, sought to reboot his premiership over the weekend. But his economically depressed country has largely given up hope on the imminent change he is promising.

Europe’s most electorally successful populist has become nearly as unpopular as the Greek political establishment he ousted almost two years ago. A recent survey showed only 19% of Greeks view him favorably and 85% are dissatisfied with his government.

Syriza Strains Greece’s Credibility

The country’s hard-left government continues to put politics before reform.

The Wall Street Journal

By YANNIS PALAIOLOGOS
Sept. 7, 2016 3:23 p.m. ET

Independent institutions remain anathema to the government in Greece. Two cases that have dominated the headlines in recent weeks demonstrate how the country’s populist government, led by the hard-left Syriza party, continues to put politics before reform and refuses to learn the right lessons from the country’s recent past.
The criminal case against economist Andreas Georgiou returned to the spotlight last month when it was reopened by the country’s Supreme Court. A longtime official with the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Georgiou had been appointed six years ago to head the independent Hellenistic Statistical Authority, or Elstat. The prime minister at the time, George Papandreou, created Elstat as a response to the discovery that the government under his predecessor, Costas Karamanlis, had underreported the country’s fiscal deficit.

EU will not release more bailout money for Greece this month: paper

Sun Sep 4, 2016 3:09pm EDT
Reuters

The euro zone will not release additional bailout money for Greece at a meeting in Bratislava this month, Germany's Handelsblatt Global reported on Sunday, citing European Union diplomats.

The online edition of the German business daily quoted the diplomats as saying that Athens had only implemented two of 15 political reforms that are conditions for the bailout money. Above all, they said, Greece had been slow to privatize state assets.

Under a deal signed last year with euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the ESM will provide financial assistance of up to 86 billion euros to Greece by 2018 in return for the agreed reforms.

Greece Cracks Down on ‘Triangle of Corruption’ in TV

By NIKI KITSANTONISAUG. 29, 2016

The New York Times

ATHENS — Since Greece opened its media to private broadcasting in the 1980s, the market has been an almost unregulated scrum. Licenses are given out on an ad hoc basis. Media outlets have proliferated. The chaos ushered in hundreds of millions of dollars of debt and invited the undue influence of banks, media barons and successive governments.

Now, the government led by the leftist Syriza party under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras says it wants to crack down on what it characterizes as a “triangle of corruption,” by auctioning off a limited number of licenses on Tuesday.

But whether that effort is actually aimed at bringing order to the market or is yet another attempt by a Greek government to shape the media to its advantage has set off a hot debate and an intense wrangle for power here.

After Initial Drop, Fresh Surge in Migrant Arrivals Puts Extra Strain on Greece

Rising numbers of asylum seekers disregard Europe’s strategy to deter them from making the journey

The Wall Street Journal

By NEKTARIA STAMOULI
Aug. 30, 2016 6:47 p.m. ET
4 COMMENTS
CHIOS, Greece— Yasmin Ali made the perilous crossing from Turkey to this Aegean island two weeks ago even though she knew she would be trapped here, unable to travel farther into Europe.

The 19-year-old Syrian economics student is one of a rising number of people disregarding Europe’s double strategy for deterring mass migration—a deal with Turkey to return new arrivals, and the closure of Balkan borders to the north—and stretching Greece’s capacity to absorb more asylum seekers even thinner.