Both they would agree that when a system relies for too long on extensive borrowing to make a living, at some point comes the time when imbalances, deficits as well as ‘extra cash needs’ (e.g. Olympics 2004, repetitive elections, etc.) cause the system to suffocate; things are worse when the system is already severely structurally flawed.

The phenomenon is not new in Greece. Greeks, due to a peculiar sense of individualism, are used to live in the sidelines of legality, sustain distortions and serve each other’s petty interests; suddenly, when the shit hits the fan, they resort to law books to assess wrongdoings of those who were found standing when the music stopped or had failed to secure sound political backup.

In the case of 2013 Greece, what’s done is done. The blame game’s only significance is when citizens approach the polls. What is really needed – and perhaps what citizens need to rely on to move forward – is strong political will to codify the crisis rhetoric in terms of the future; it requires thinking what is necessary to exit the vicious cycle of indecisiveness and misery, maintaining, at the same time, the decency of the Greek people.

To start looking ahead (and most importantly to start exploring the advantages of the country) needs to first to put things in order. Some key areas –that, perhaps, would satisfy most mainstream political trends- could be the following:

1) Protection of national sovereignty (land and sea borders, ownership of natural resources).

2) Fiscal efficiency – we should stop consuming more than what we produce.

3) Production of new wealth in a socially responsible way.

4) Preservation and development of social capital to secure sustainability of all the above.

These four simple concepts (homeland, fiscal balance, sustainability, people) require a new philosophy towards life as well as long-term planning and continuous innovation. Before those, however, some positive shocks could come in handy.

A couple of months ago, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras shyly mumbled a figure: 15% corporate flat tax for all entrepreneurial activity. Well, it is not like inventing the wheel, since many countries with fewer problems have introduced it as an incentive to attract FDIs, but it could definitely be a positive sign for companies already operating in the country. Well, for new ones to arrive, Samaras would have to voice more meaningful points such as: simplification of the process for the creation of new companies; online company register; cutting down red tape; eGov services etc. And guess what: voicing these may not be enough anymore; turning it into practice and presenting some real success stories would do the trick.

In my mind, this is the key weakness of the ‘success story’ Maximos Mansion’s staffers are trying to spin to desperate Greek media; these guys some times look like retired wizards who are trying to learn new tricks. The attempt to assign the ‘Grecovery’ to the country as a whole is a stupid shortcut that leads nowhere; what’s more, it seems to jeopardise any positive results secured by Greek people’s sacrifices so far. In modern times, the ‘phoenix’, in order to rise again needs a little bit more than magic and national wishful thinking; for instance, it requires sound management, across the board utilization of digital means and renouncement of partisanship from the handling of state affairs. I doubt that they have anything to communicate in these fields…

To inspire ‘Grecovery’, the government needs some political R&D towards two directions: first, real life solutions and second, communications. No matter what it is commonly argued, the country cannot exit the crisis without state of the art communication strategies and practices that will keep Greek people informed and foreign investors motivated.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said some time ago: “…Despite the signs that the worst of the financial crisis is now behind us, despite these modest green shoots, there is still a long way to go to restore our growth prospects, to revive our economies, to heal our banking systems, to create more jobs and to improve welfare across our union. We need to remember that the economy reacts with a time lag: once stability is back, it takes time before this is translated into more confidence, more investment and growth and jobs. And as growth returns, it takes time before the positive impact on employment starts kicking in…”

To this direction, Greece would require a lot more than old-time wizards constructing ‘success stories’ out of thin air, or political mumblings of coalition partners who have lost their role in contemporary politics.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Editor of alyunaniya.com

The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis, Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis, Administration and eGovernance Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Deputy Finance Minister George Mavraganis, AMNA reports.

Exiting the Maximos Mansion Hardouvelis said he briefed the two political leaders on the negotiations in Paris. “It went well. We had progress. We did not close the issues. We continue,” he said, while regarding the possible extension of the current programme he said: “there could be one for a very short period of time for technical reasons.”

The government appears certain that there will be an agreement with the troika by the end of the year. A source close to the Prime Minister stated that “those who invest in catastrophe will be disappointed as there was no wreck or destruction in Paris.”

Negotiations with the troika will continue via teleconference calls in the coming days.

Most of the haggling has been over a projected fiscal gap in the 2015 budget, protothema.gr notes. Failure to strike a deal by the December 8 deadline means that the Greek government won’t be able to keep its pledge of quitting its bailout programme by the end of 2014.

The main issues of discontent are:

- A Finance ministry official pinpointed the “number one” issue being the fiscal gap for 2015. A Greek official said that “the timetable is very tight.” Meanwhile, a European source said that the troika would like to see the new law for debt settlement in 100 installments to be scrapped altogether.

- The troika is not satisfied with structural changes in social security thus far and is seeking to see pensions immediately reduced. They also want the pension age to be lifted but believe that this should be done gradually over a five-year period.

- Troika wants businesses to be excluded from the recent law that allows for debt settlement in up to 100 installments.

- Troika believes that there should be a common salary chart for the public sector or, at the very least, a reduction of “extra” bonuses and overtime.

- International creditors are seeking to have VAT rates increase and for VAT exemptions on some islands to no longer apply. They want the reduced 6.5% and 14% VAT rates for items that are considered basic needs to be lifted.

- The troika would like to see Greek labour law to include mass dismissals and changes to the way decisions for strike action are structured as well as changes to the law on unions.

Sources said that discussions with the troika had not resulted in a date being set for the return of troika’s representatives to Athens for a review prior to the Eurogroup meeting on December 8. Nonetheless, the extension of the bailout has yet to be discussed.

The markets have been negative concerning Greece’s early exit from the program with Greek government bonds having slumped and Greece’s 10-year bond close to 8%.

“All parties to the conflict in Syria must comply with the rules of international humanitarian law to protect civilians against the violence of conflict at all times. It is our moral duty to remind them of their obligation to do so and to protect the provision of medical and humanitarian assistance in Syria. Violence against civilians in Syria must stop now. Expansion of current humanitarian efforts is urgently required, independent of political efforts to resolve the conflict. We call upon all parties to the conflict to:

- immediately uphold their obligation to protect civilians as well as medical personnel, facilities and transport;

- allow and facilitate immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to the whole of the territory;

- guarantee without delay the safety and security of humanitarian personnel in the exercise of their duties

Imagine that the city you live in, the place where you work and where your children go to school are all being destroyed. Not quickly from one day to another, but in a slow, gradual and unpredictable manner. Imagine the uncertainty and stress you would feel at the thought of tomorrow. Will the next house destroyed be my neighbour’s? Will it be mine? This is the tragic and unbearable reality for people living in Syria.

We want people around the world to understand that the on-going conflict in Syria has real and tangible consequences for ordinary people. So even though much of the discussion and coverage of the crisis tends to focus on the political and military situation, we must not lose sight of the day-to-day impact on people living in Syria.

The tragic conflict in Syria has continued for more than two years. Thousands of civilians have been killed every month and those who survive – whether in Syria or in its neighboring countries – suffer unprecedented humanitarian hardship.

We are shocked by the growing tragic consequences of the conflict. Fighting and violence have reached intolerable levels, leading to unbearable suffering, loss of human life, refugees-flows, massive displacement of people and material destruction. Despite the efforts to increase protection for all affected civilians in Syria and in neighbouring countries, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate dramatically and many civilians remain cut off from humanitarian assistance. We are particularly concerned about the most vulnerable, especially children and women.

The numbers speak for themselves. More than 100.000 people are estimated to have been killed during the war and 465.000 injured. More than 2 million refugees including 1 million of children have already left Syria, while 4.3 million including 2 millions of children have been forced from their homes, but remain within the Syrian borders. These numbers continue to increase daily.

We are appalled by the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which have taken so many civilian lives, including numerous women and children. We condemn in the strongest terms the use of such weapons of mass destruction. The use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances is a grave violation of international law and an outrageous war crime. There should be no impunity for such acts and any perpetrators must be brought to justice.

All parties to the conflict have the responsibility to comply with the rules of international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and humanity to protect civilians against the violence of conflict at all times. We have a moral obligation to remind and influence all parties to respect their obligations and to protect the provision of medical and humanitarian assistance in Syria.

In particular, we are greatly concerned that medical infrastructure has been severely damaged or destroyed. According to the UN, 60% of the public hospitals have been affected, many badly damaged and almost 40% completely unusable. Almost 80% of ambulances in the country have been damaged and, alarmingly, some are being misused for combat purposes. Convoys are regularly checked and medical supplies are often being seized. Patients, medical personnel, facilities and vehicles are being deliberately targeted by those involved in the hostilities. Medical facilities, including hospitals, are being exploited for combat purposes, and some are even being used as torture and detention centres.

As a result of the damage to health facilities, lack of qualified health personnel and insecurity, many people cannot consistently access medical care. This deprives them of basic medical services placing in particular women and children at significant risk, as well as those who suffer from chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. The disruption of vaccination programmes, damage to water and sanitation services, and destruction of homes and shelters also places people at substantial risk of infectious diseases. Outbreak of measles and diarrhea have already been documented.

In some instances, life-saving surgical supplies have been removed from aid convoys. We are also seeing too many civilians dying of injuries, which they could have survived, if only timely medical assistance was available. At the same time, humanitarian organizations continue to face dire conditions as they attempt to access victims.

Violence against civilians in Syria must stop now. Expansion of current humanitarian efforts is urgently required, independent of political efforts to resolve the conflict.

We express our gratitude to the humanitarian workers from various UN, international and domestic organisations, who put their lives at risk on the ground every day to deliver humanitarian supplies to all the civilians under extraordinary difficult circumstances. We wish to praise the courage and solidarity of ordinary men and women in their efforts to relieve the suffering of their families and neighbours in such a dire and tragic situation.

We call upon all parties to the conflict to immediately uphold their obligation to protect civilians as well as medical personnel, facilities and transport. They must allow and facilitate immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to the whole of the territory, including delivery of medical care and humanitarian assistance on a non-discriminatory basis. We urge all parties to guarantee the safety and security of humanitarian personnel in the exercise of their duties.”

List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs who sign the joint article: Michael Spindelegger, Vice-Chancellor & Federal Minister for European and International Affairs, Austria; Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs, Belgium; Kristian Vigenin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria; Charles Koffi Diby, Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire; Vesna Pusić, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Republic of Croatia; Ioannis Kasoulides, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Cyprus; Jan Kohout, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic; Christian Friis Bach, Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark; Nabil Fahmy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arab Republic of Egypt; Urmaes Paet, Deputy Prime-Minister and Foreign Minister, Greece; Kristalina Georgieva, International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis response Commissioner, European Commission; Heidi Hautala, Minister for International Development, Finland; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Estonia; Evangelos Venizelos, Deputy Prime-Minister and Foreign Minister, Greece; Janos Martonyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hungary; Dr. Marty M. Natalegawa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia; Eamon Gilmore T.D., Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland; Edgars Rinkēvičs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Latvia; Jean Asselborn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, The Netherlands; Radoslaw Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Poland; Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Slovakia; Karl Erjavec, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia; D. José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Spain; Didier Burkhalter, Federal Counsellor in charge of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland; Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand.

So, where do we go from here? Albert Einstein once stated that a person, who by repeating the same process expects a different result, is definitely insane. Following this, it is evident that expecting salvation from the current economic practices is doomed.

I sincerely believe the West should move towards the Scandinavian welfare state direction. Adopting such a system, would end the focus on personal gain and the ridiculous pursuit of riches. It would stress the importance of collective well being and the importance of society’s progress instead of pure personal well-being.

Obviously, there are arguments against this. Winston Churchill, an ardent Anti-Socialist in his time, considered Communism as the destruction of free enterprise and will and thus, the damnation of society as a whole into misery.

Alas, the present situation indicates that collective misery can occur in the liberal system as well.

How can we put things into perspective? Our youth should be introduced to the belief that the common good is above personal gain. Schools and Universities should struggle to abolish the ‘greed is good’ dogma that has led society to a dead end. As George Orwell had noted in the 1940’s, ‘in a society, indexes and percentages are irrelevant, what is critical is whether the average citizen is happy’.

Ask yourselves a very simple question: how can one feel happy when there may be even one fellow citizen in misery?

In retrospect, we should have never allowed society to reach a state where the individual is more important than the whole. I am well, when everyone around me is well. My main concern is to have healthy and resourceful people around.

And this should be the norm in our society!

The results are according to the United Nations General Assembly’s second World Happiness Report, which rated six areas like GDP per capita; social support; healthy life expectancy at birth; freedom to make life choices; generosity; and perceptions of corruption to calculate overall happiness in 156 countries.

Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, praised the achievement for Emiratis which he described as an “approach followed by the founding fathers of the UAE, a vision in all government sectors, levels and institutions as well as a manner of work that governs all of our policies and decisions”, he said in a statement according to Emirates News Agency.

Meanwhile, the UN report shows that Greece ranked 70th out of 156 countries, with a happiness index of 5.4, making it the least happy country in Europe.

Of all the European countries, Greece seems to have suffered the most from the Eurozone crisis, since it marked the greatest drop in the happiness index 29010-12 period, To Vima reports.

On the other hand, the countries in the north of Europe are at the top of the happiness index, with Denmark 1st, followed by Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

Canada, Finland, Austria, Iceland and Australia rounded out the top 10.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the wake of recent political upheaval Egypt had the greatest fall in Happiness levels.

Oman was ranked 23 happiest country, Qatar 27, Kuwait 32, Saudi 33 and Bahrain 79.

Leading experts in several fields – economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, and more – describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.

The Report is edited by Professor John F. Helliwell, of the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; Lord Richard Layard, Director of the Well-Being Programme at LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance; and Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Director of the SDSN, and Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General.

In his first press conference since returning to New York from the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Mr. Ban said that should a UN weapons team confirm use of chemical agents in the 21 August incident in Syria, it would be an “abominable crime” and the international community “would certainly have to do something about it.”

“The Syrian people need peace,” he declared.

“Should Dr. Sellström’s report confirm the use of chemical weapons, then this would surely be something around which the Security Council could unite in response – and indeed something that should merit universal condemnation,” Mr. Ban told reporters.

The UN chief added that he is already considering “certain proposals that I could make to the Security Council” when presenting the investigation team’s report.

Those include urging the Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria’s chemical weapons and chemical precursor stocks to places inside Syria where they can be safely stored and destroyed, Mr. Ban said.

He also urged Damascus to become a party to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Syria is not a party CWC, but it is a party to the Geneva (Protocol) of 1925 which prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons, according to the OPCW.

In response to a question about how quickly the UN can act, if Syria agrees to a transfer of its alleged chemical weapons stock under international control, Mr. Ban said he is sure that the international community will take “very swift action” to make safely store and destroy the chemical weapons stocks.

Meanwhile, the biomedical and environmental samples taken by the UN chemical weapons inspection team have been undergoing analysis in Europe since last week.

Ban has said he would promptly share the results of the analyses with the 15-member Security Council and all 193 Member States.

Addressing journalists, the UN chief again reiterated the need to come together for a so-called Geneva II conference, which would include representatives of Syrian parties as well as senior United States, Russian and UN officials, to find a political path out of the crisis in the country.

A political solution “is the only viable option at this time”, Mr. Ban said, adding that he and Joint UN-Arab League Special Representative Lakhdar Brahimi, who was also in St. Petersburg, have been working very closely with Moscow and Washington to get all parties to the table.

The UN chief noted that Syria dominated the G20 talks “in a way no other political development has ever done.”

In addition to those discussions at the summit and on the sidelines, Mr. Ban said there was progress on growth, jobs, trade and investment.

Ban said he was “encouraged” by the response to this call for concentrated actions to achieve the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), define a global development agenda beyond 2015, and addressing climate change.

He looks forward to building on the G20 discussions at the high-level General Assembly debate later this month at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Rehn said “To beat the crisis, we have taken action to deal with short, medium and long-term challenges. For the short-term, we had to stabilise financial markets so as to avoid the free fall of our economy. For the medium term, we need economic reforms for sustainable growth and job creation. And for the long-term, we needed to redesign the architecture of European Monetary Union”.

Mersch, as a central banker had to concentrate on the capital market. He stressed that “Governments have recognised that certain powers need to be at the European level for a Single Market to function. But what we have seen in the crisis is that we do not yet have the right powers at the European level to support a Single Market in capital…We see Banking Union, therefore, not only as a necessary complement of monetary union but also as a way of putting in place the necessary institutions, rules and instruments to sustain a genuinely single financial market”.

Who is responsible?

Let’s see if they are telling the truth. No doubt they are absolutely right that the EU is still fighting the repercussions of the crisis and tries to fill the institutional holes in the EU’s edifice. Speaking about the crisis the two top EU officials should have said a few words about its causes. None of them however mentioned that the German and the French banks kept lending money to Greece until the spring of 2009 that is almost two years after the first sings of the crisis were quite visible and the ECB had already sounded the alarm, even from September of 2007.

The Greek borrower

The Greek minister of Finance at the time Yiannis Papathanassiou had boast in March of 2009 for his high performance as a borrower. He stated that the Greek exchequer ‘under his guidance’ had borrowed in the first two months of that year €50 billion. This kind of money was of the order that could make or break Greece and as everybody learned some months later the poor country ended up totally broke.

Of course the Greek government wasted the €50bn as they had done with previous loans. Their ‘policy’ was to use the loans to appoint thousands of their political clientele in the public sector. The money was also misappropriated by corrupt politicians. Akis Tsohatzopoulos, the No2 in all Costas Simites governments from 1996 to 2004, is on trial today for money laundering and for taking bribes. From 2004 until 2009 the two Costas Karamanlis governments hired 850,000 more people in the public sector, as Leonidas Grigorakos, the deputy minister of Interior revealed yesterday in Athens.

The bank connection

However the Greek and the other mindless EU governments didn’t do it alone during the party years of the first decade of the new Millennium. All the major EU banks kept lending them hundreds of billions of euro without a second thought. Greece was borrowing at the same interest rate as Germany. No worries if those loans were ever to be repaid. It was enough to write the loans as ‘assets’ in the bank’s balance sheet, thus fattening the bonus of the banker at the end of the year. The bonuses to bankers for approving that kind of lending were so huge, in the area of millions annually, that one year’s take home pay was enough to support a family for a lifetime. Consequently the lenders are equally responsible as the fraudulent and mindless Greek politicians now in the hands of the penal justice. Unfortunately no banker has been put behind bars.

It’s deplorable that a Commission Vice President and a Member of the Executive Board of the ECB didn’t make the slightest reference to such actions of bankers and politicians which caused the worst economic crisis of Europe after the WW II. Not even a word about how dearly the average European pays for the ‘party’ held for years by a handful of people. Both speakers enjoyed the trip and the stay in the Alpine landscape of Alpbach and recited once more the recipe for Eurozone to come out from the crisis, at a dear cost paid by the many.

In short Rehn and Mersch didn’t say a word on their experience from the crisis nor on what caused it neither how much the average European pays for it.

Republished by permission from Europeansting.com.

What does this mean? For those who subscribe to the relevant American-fed scenario, adopted by Wall Street Journal and other systemic global media, the next big thing could be the rebellion of the technocrats, the upheaval of common sense against obsolete mentalities and inefficient party politics.

As a friend of mine -a proponent of this view- says, “it’s going to be you and me hitting the streets, because we cannot take it anymore.” How this becomes popular? How allegedly advanced people could use simplicity to change things? Could an “intellectual indignados” rebellion be the solution for Greece?

Probably, this question will be left unanswered until we see it in practice. But, perhaps what remains important is that people of various professional and intellectual backgrounds are appearing having radical voices amongst their Facebook peers and in summer gatherings. More and more ‘commentators of life’ are turning themselves into Soc Nets columnists with an increasing number of followers who are willing to pick up a debate and comment on current affairs.

This up-scale, low voice indignant appetite seems to run horizontally in Greek society, having ‘common sense’ as its front running banner. So, why in Greece, change continues to come in the form of an obligatory process, instead of being part of an effort to move the country forward?

Having intellectuals, academics, people of the mind rallying -and probably being engaged in innovative activism- is an attractive thought. But who are these people and how far are they willing to go? What could be the logistics of this ‘revolution’? Would it include clashes of demonstrating suited technocrats and bearded scientists against SYRIZA’s leftish crowd and PAME’s rally soldiers? Well, despite its graphicness, this couldn’t possibly end well. And if it did, the question would be: for whom? What’s the end game? How this could turn into actual and -most importantly- enlightened governance?

Another question: “Who benefits?” an old –probably lefty- professor of mine in London used to ask, when we were discussing the deregulation of British Telecom and the energy grid. The answer is key, in order to think about it wisely and of course, to frame the perspective within current Greek situation.

In the case of Greece, coming up with an answer is not an easy task, almost impossible, if we stop considering, for instance privatisations as something more than a state revenue boost. Of course, a privatisation state chief flying on private planes, owned by a state property buyer is not something that assists towards the justification of the process.

Although not necessarily the best-case scenario, I think the way out of the Greek crisis will be once again political, even canonical. It will not emerge out of illuminated technocrats, who will rally, expressing a higher level of discontent towards inefficiency and old partisanship. This agenda alone, although could suffice to overthrow a government in the minds of people – and providing it does not constitute a post-modern coup d’ etat-, it does not offer a viable alternative solution for three reasons: first, it would lack popular support, especially amongst the unemployed and those who were severely hit by austerity, second, it would need to outsource its political organisation to questionable centres of power and third, it would cause a bold juxtaposition with the representatives of the old status quo who are trying to save what is left from their glorious past.

As long as mainstream politics is not up to it, the Greek problem will not meet its solution. My view is that Greeks have lived for too long under state protectionism; this makes them less flexible to organise the restart, grasp the opportunity of the crisis and change their lives in a country that offers everything in flux, not to say anything about changing the country through revolt.

Nevertheless, although solution will have to come from the mainstream, improvements of the presiding model are strongly required; perhaps by allowing some responsible technocrats and realism-strong intellectuals pushing their way into the mainstream.

However, to manage that, the ruling political cast should stop behaving as old dogs refusing to learn new tricks. Or if they continue to do so, they could just simply crawl away to die.

Dr. Demetris Kamaras is the Founder-Editor of alyunaniya.com

Asmussen said there are already results that show the Greek economy has stabilised, while the Greek banking system is now recapitalised. He spoke of a painful effort and expressed his respect for the efforts of the Greek people.

He also said that the reforms must be continued and he placed emphasis on efforts to fight unemployment, particularly among young people, and to achieve growth rates.

Asked about a possible new “haircut” for the Greek debt, as well as the possibility of a new fiscal programme for Greece, he referred to the decision taken by the Eurogroup last November, which stated explicitly that if a primary surplus is achieved, measures would be examined for further debt reduction. He added that whatever discussions would not begin before the spring of 2014, when the data on the Greek economy for 2013 comes in.

According to Kathimerini, the government is reportedly planning to use European Union structural funds to cover part of any fiscal shortfall and new financing of EUR 4 billion for the 2015-16 period in a bid to avoid the adoption of new revenue-collecting measures.

The troika is due to conduct an important assessment of Greece’s progress in September. So far, it has been agreed that the EU will provide 95% of investment subsidies for the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) for the 2007-13 period, and official announcements are expected in the next few days. The Finance Ministry is proposing that this rate be maintained in the new NSRF for the 2014-20 period. In this way, the government will be able to meet any financing shortfalls thanks to its lower contributions to NSRF investments. Sources told the paper that the response of EU departments so far has not been negative.

Samaras has requested regular updates by FinMin Yannis Stournaras on the implementation of the VAT reduction in food.

Restaurants and other catering outlets that pass on a recently agreed VAT reduction to consumers will receive a special sign that they can display to customers from the associations to which they belong.

This was decided during a meeting between Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis, restaurant owners, the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsment and Merchants (GSEVEE) and the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), AMNA informs.

The finance ministry’s general secretary for revenues Haris Theoharis also left open the possibility of adopting a SETE proposal calling for the 24-hour closure of any business failing to issue receipts.

The system proposed is based on the French model adopted after a similar VAT rate cut in 2009. Under this, the various business associations will award the enterprises wanting to participate in the system with a special sign certifying that they have revised their prices to incorporate the VAT reduction and pass gains on to consumers. A separate sign of a different colour will be handed out to those businesses that only partially pass the VAT cut to their customers.

The Premier has also prioritized tourism, public administration, taxation, outstanding debts, health (insurance funds and EOPYY) and education.

What lies ahead is Samaras’ visit to Washington in August, during which the Premier will have the opportunity to discuss with US President Barrack Obama a number of international matters, such as Cyprus and the naming dispute with FYROM.

Maximos Mansion sources argue that despite the crisis, Greece has managed to increase its standing, in part thanks to the developments in energy, such as the singing of the TAP pipeline and the search for hydrocarbons.

The Prime Minister is also hoping on the positive messages from the recent visit by US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The Greek side hopes that the PM’s visit to Washington will attract investments.