Thursday, May 26, 2016

Greece's exit from the eurozone averted -- for now.

But at what cost to Greece's international reputation, the Greek people and the country's relations with its European partners?

17 hours of negotiations have left Greece facing the prospect, once again, of tough austerity measures.

Eurozone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision.

But in return, they have agreed to talks on an 86-billion-euro bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the euro.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is now under pressure to get parliament to pass economic-reform laws in exchange for a new bailout package.


Unpopular reforms include pension cuts, budget cuts and the privatisation of industries such as electricity.

It comes just two weeks after the country voted no to further austerity in a landmark referendum, and some observers say it leaves Greece looking humiliated.

Mark Melatos is from the school of economics at the University of Sydney.

Dr Melatos says, beyond how Greece may be viewed around the world, scars will probably remain between eurozone countries.

"In the end, it wasn't even just Greece against all the other countries. I think there were divisions among many of the European countries, including, you know, France and Germany, and Italy and Germany, and so on. So, again, I think, while this is definitely a victory for Germany, really, I think it is a bit of a Pyrrhic victory, because, somehow, the eurozone after this experience is going to be more adversarial, I think, and members are going to just be looking over their shoulders."

As Europe's largest economy, and the biggest provider of loans to Greece under its two previous bailout programs, Germany has played a key role in the negotiations.

SBS German broadcaster Oliver Heuthesays Germany has taken a hardline approach on austerity measures for Greece for good reason.

"After the reunification (of Germany), which cost over a trillion euro -- which is an enormous sum that Germany had to bring up to recover East Germany's economy -- which resulted in a massive unemployment rate, Germany, the Social Democratic government, the new one after (Helmut) Kohl left, reacted with harsh measures -- austerity, sort of work-for-the-dole programs -- and it worked, it flourished. And now we've become one of the strongest economies within a space of 15 years, and we are lending money to other countries."

But the tough conditions imposed on Greece have been likened to the 1919 Versailles treaty, which left Germany struggling to pay war reparations.

Dr Melatos, from the University of Sydney, says, similarly, Greece will battle.

"Greece cannot repay this debt. I think the deal that has been agreed to here is, in some sense, the worst of all worlds, because Greece will be continuing depression (regarding) austerity, basically, for the foreseeable future. At the end of that, they still won't be able to repay their debt, so they'll still be effectively bankrupt. And, really, the only solution here was a Greek exit."

SBS Greek broadcaster Dina Gerolymou says the human cost of austerity to date has already been enormous.

She says the Greek people have been left questioning whether further austerity measures could genuinely help them.

"We have, in Greece, about two million people who live below the poverty line. Half a million children live in families where both parents are unemployed. We have a very high percentage of unemployment and the highest ever among the young people under the age of 30. At the same time, the last five years, austerity demanded that taxes were raised while incomes were being cut."

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