Greek deputy leader attacks EU leadership

Senior politician says Europe’s main players are ‘not up to the task’.

Greece’s deputy prime minister has accused the European Union of a lack of leadership, saying that a previous generation of EU leaders would have prevented Greece’s financial crisis.

Theodoros Pangalos said yesterday: “I’m of the opinion that today’s Europe has no political leadership.”

Harking back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the European Union was led by a triumvirate of Jacques Delors, the president of the European Commission, French President François Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Pangalos said: “I believe if Delors was in charge in Europe, Mitterrand in France and Kohl in Germany…things would not be the same.”

Referring to the European Council of 11 February, which discussed Greece’s problems, he said: “The people who are managing the fortunes of Europe were not up to the task.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been reluctant to endorse a bail-out for Greece, fearing that it would reduce pressure on Greece and other countries to cut their deficits.

Pangalos was speaking as officials from the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund arrived in Athens to examine the Greek government’s accounts and plans to reduce a deficit that was 12.7% in 2009. 

Greek trade unions are holding a general strike today to protest at government plans to cut 4% from the deficit this year.

The other national governments of the EU have given Greece a deadline of 16 March to produce a credible deficit reduction plan or face calls for further measures to cut spending.

The Greek government has to sell new government bonds worth €18.62 billion in April and May to refinance outstanding bonds that will mature. But it may have to pay a rate of nearly 6.5% to attract investors. German ten-year government bonds have a yield of 3.15%, showing that investors want a higher return for buying Greek bonds because of greater fears that Greece could default on its debts.

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