Greek Taxis
The Times reports that Eurozone officials are getting increasingly fed up at being taken for a ride by the Syriza-led government of Greece.
About time to if you ask me, because I don't see any sign that Syriza is serious about reforming its economy and raising sufficient taxes to pay for essential public services.
And if Syriza can't be 'arsed' facing up to some hard choices, then it seems to me that it's just madness for the rest of Europe to keep bailing Greece out.
Greece accused of taking eurozone for a ride
'Eurozone officials do not believe that Greece is unable to meet its obligations,' a source said Louisa Gouliamiaki/Getty Images
By Bruno Waterfield - The Times
The Greek government has been accused of acting like an Athens taxi driver by trying to take its creditors for a ride as talks to keep Greece inside the euro hit rock bottom.
As technical negotiations continue today, officials from the eurozone have expressed shock at demands from Greece for €7.2 billion in loans to help to pay its bills without any action on economic reform in return.
Talks last week were described by officials as unbelievable after the Greek government failed to table convincing plans showing how Athens would implement reforms that it had accepted as a condition of aid. “There is strong sense of entitlement that is undeserved, to say the least,” a eurozone source said. “It is pretty unbelievable at this late stage of the game that the Greeks are pretending that the eurozone owes them something.”
According to sources quoted in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, Nikos Theocharakis, the financial security to the Greek Treasury, behaved “like a taxi driver” — a reference to a service notorious for ripping off tourists at Athens airport.
Finance ministry officials from other eurozone countries told Greece last Wednesday to provide written proposals as to how the leftwing Syriza government would cut civil service pensions by a week today.
In response, Greek officials have demanded eurozone loans to stop the country going bankrupt amid increasing capital flight and a collapse in tax revenue. “Eurozone officials do not believe that Greece is unable to meet its obligations. It is a domestic political issue, not a matter for the eurozone, if the government is unable fully to pay salaries and pensions,” a source close to the talks said.
Poisoning the negotiations are Greece’s relations with Germany, which are at an all-time low after Greece demanded €279 billion in war reparations last week.
Greece faces debt repayment deadlines for €1.2 billion next month. It must repay €770 million to the International Monetary Fund, and more than €400 million in interest to other creditors, at a time when the government is finding it hard to meet the state payroll.
Hardliners in Syriza are pushing Alexis Tsipras, the prime minister, not to pay the IMF in order to put Greek public-sector workers first.
Talks between eurozone finance ministers will continue in Riga on April 24. Negotiations are expected to continue on April 29 and 30 before demonstrations and a possible Greek deadline on the Labour Day bank holiday on May 1 .
Christine Lagarde, the director of the IMF, warned Greece against the temptation not to pay its bills, a scenario that would lead to default and an exit from the euro that would only hurt Greeks. “It would be terrible for the Greek people,” she said. “Equally, I think that the firewalls, the banking union, the strengthened fiscal union have put the eurozone in a much better and stronger position than it was four years ago.”
