Greece train crash: The EU has blood on its hands

 

By DiEM25 Communications | 03/03/2023

eu european commission Greece

While the EU was quick to symbolically pay tributes, its role in the privatisation of the Greek railway played a big part in the tragedy  

The death toll continues to rise in Greece after the horrific head-on-collision crash between two trains on Wednesday in the village of Tempi, which has further brought the negligence and corruption of the Greek government under scrutiny, and rightly so.

However, the role of the European Union in the tragedy cannot go unmentioned either, as it was the EU and its institutions who forced Greece to sell off public utilities for a pittance to private – and in the case of the railways, bankrupt and incompetent – companies.

Erik Edman, MeRA25’s spokesman, laid out the hypocrisy of the EU after it symbolically lowered its flags to half-mast to pay tribute to the victims of the train crash.

“The architects of the permanent impoverishment of the Greek state and the disastrous privatisation of its public property, are lowering their flags today,” Erik wrote.

“The EC [European Commission] were the brains behind the haphazard privatisation that forced the Greek state to sell the entirety of its national railways to the bankrupt (!) Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane for – I kid you not – a measly 45 million euros.

“They view demonstrations, such as those by Greek rail workers, as backward unionists opposing the efficiency of privatisation. People who had been warning of an INEVITABLE accident as a result of underinvestment. Their colleagues had been injured in past years, and now.

“The breaking up of the services responsible for the maintenance of the railways, with the most costly role being given to the impoverished Greek state, while the only profitable elements of the operation being given to the private sector.

“They constantly praise the corrupt government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis as a “success story”. So, they should either stand by the policies they’ve been supporting and keep the flags up, or take them down and put them away in shame. Anything else is hypocrisy of the worst kind.”

 

The EU as a borrower

The European Commission is empowered by the EU Treaty to borrow from the international capital markets, on behalf of the European Union.

The EU has some EUR 57 billion in outstanding bonds. It has a liquid yield curve consisting of 19 benchmark issues of over EUR 1 billion maturing until 2042.

The EU currently has three loan programmes which are funded through bonds issued on the capital markets:

• The European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM) exists to providesupport to any EU Member State, up to EUR 60 billion. It has been activated for Ireland for up to EUR 22.5 billion and for Portugal for up to EUR 26 billion.
• The Balance-of-payments programme (BOP) provides assistance  to non-euro area Member States up to EUR 50 billion (EUR 10.4 billion outstanding)
• Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) is a form of financial aid extended by the EU to partner countries. So far there is EUR 1.1 billion in bonds outstanding.

In addition, the European Commission manages the

• Package of pooled bilateral loans from euro area Member States to Greece; the package initially comprised a total of EUR 80 billion, which was finally lowered to EUR 52.9 billion.