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GREECE IS talking with international creditors about a second bailout package “roughly equal” to the first €110 billion rescue it accepted a year ago, the prime minister confirmed today.
George Papandreou also blamed Greece’s bloated and inefficient state sector for bringing the country to its knees and vowed to effect deep changes with a fall referendum on the constitution that would make it easier to get rid of inept officials or workers.
His proposals were a populist response to widespread popular anger at politicians as austerity measures cut deeply into disposable incomes. Riots erupted on the streets of Athens last week against a new round of spending cuts and tax hikes being demanded by the European Union and the IMF.
Confidence vote
“I ask for a vote of confidence because we are at a critical juncture … the debt and deficits are national problems that have brought Greece into a state of dependence that may have protected us from bankruptcy, but which we need to get out of,” Papandreou said, opening a three-day parliamentary debate that culminates Tuesday in a confidence vote.
He dismissed any calls to default on the country’s massive debt, saying this would be “a catastrophe for households and banks alike” and made it clear he would not back off from efforts to reduce the debt.
Papandreou called for an autumn referendum on changes to the political system, including to the country’s constitution. He said he will appoint an independent commission of up to 25 people to collect proposals from citizens and submit a report before the fall vote.
Papandreou said the constitutional revision will make it easier to prosecute delinquent government officials, now protected by a strict statute of limitations. He added other changes would include reducing the number of deputies, more transparent funding of political parties and candidates and a new electoral system, possibly even with term limits.
European donors and the International Monetary Fund are demanding that Greece pass new austerity measures before they release the next €12 billion loan from the first rescue package.
Default
Many experts say Greece’s debt load is too great and expect it to eventually default. The European Central Bank, however, has been adamant that a Greek default is unthinkable because it could set off an unpredictable chain reaction that would badly hurt European banks, roil markets and make it harder for other indebted countries to cope. The ECB also has significant exposure to Greek debt.
Spooked by financial markets’ reaction to Greece’s political turmoil, Germany on Friday dropped its demand that the private sector be forced to share in the pain of a second Greek bailout. Papandreou also reshuffled his Cabinet and named a new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, who was in Luxembourg today at a EU finance ministers meeting.
Papandreou said the original loan’s assumption that Greece would be able to borrow from the markets in 2012 was no longer valid, but insisted his Socialist government had done all it was required to, passing painful austerity measures and reducing the deficit as a percentage of GDP by 5 percent in 2010.
Instead, he blamed ratings agencies, tax havens, “derivatives speculators” and the media for allegedly spreading panic and discouraging potential investors.
With 155 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, Papandreou is expected to win the confidence vote. His next task is to pass the new austerity package by the end of the month, despite near-daily protest marches and sit-ins.
Protesters who flock each afternoon to Athens’ central Syntagma square in front of parliament have been wearing stickers saying “We owe nothing, we’ll sell nothing, we’ll pay nothing” — rejecting creditors’ demands to sell off state assets. Keeping up the anti-austerity drumbeat, GENOP, the powerful union of state electric employees, was to begin rolling 48-hour strikes at midnight Sunday, threatening blackouts across the country.
Unions are planning a 48-hour general strike on the date, yet to be determined, when parliament votes on the new austerity package.
- AP
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Is that sarcasm..?
The *drab* colours of the old punt??
I’m fond of the euro, but the punt was lovely – fabulous old Irish art on it.
Am I on glue? Am I remembering it incorrectly?
I agree the art on them was very good but I do think the colours were fairly drab.
I like glue
Fairly drab, good, great, fantastic, who cares unless you can buy more for it,
You gotta love the nun on the old fiver.
Or not.
With the old punt you actually felt like you had real money that was worth something in your pocket. A 50 euro note now goes nowhere. Monopoly money.
@Karol Aww, all the pretty colours. Should we have put Barney the dinosaur, Elmo and Zig and Zag on the old punt? Would that have been colourful enough?
Len,
No, colours would have sufficed.
Miss getting a few horse monies off the oul mother.
Nice picture of Bertie on the 20
You are right. The old Irish tender was fantastic…I remember asking my grandfather about the people on the notes and him telling me stories about ‘old’ Ireland. Unfortunately that’s now lost forever with the Euro
I thought the Euro would have nudey pictures by now lol.
Drab colours of the punt? The punt had so much more character. And so much more value. Wish we had never adopted the euro!
I don’t know about not adopting the euro, but the old notes were far better. Surely the EU can agree on some universally admired people like Einstein and Beethoven to put on the euro notes.
There was nothing wrong with adopting the Euro. It was been driven off a cliff by Fianna Fail that was the problem.
A common currency was, in theory, not a bad idea. But the euro was badly run from the get go. Too much political grandstanding and not enough fiscal, economic and social considerations. It wasn’t entirely Fianna Fail’s fault. Sure, they were the biggest culprit when it came down to the local Irish economy. But they can’t be blamed for failed ECB policies in relation to Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. So, as I said, we should never have joined the euro. A better conceived common currency, yes. But not the euro.
Greatest financial con job in history adopting the euro.
Faces on notes look better than bridges.
Ah yes our old £50 that used to last for weeks not like the new €50 which seems to vanish in minutes, fond memories……….
So that’s what a £50 looked like – don’t think I ever had one of those in my pocket. And I didn’t even know the £100 existed!!
I remember once seeing an old £50 when I was little and I remember being profoundly mesmerised. Nowadays €50 are as common as the old fivers!!
Preferred the old notes.
More character.
More of a cultural icon / connection. When you held them in your hand you knew you had money, real money, worth something.
These new ones are insipid. Bland.
Could be from any old place in Europe.
I miss the old money , heading into town on a night out with 20 quid in your pocket . happy days ..
Ah yes the old money. For 5p you could get a steak and kidney pie, a cup of coffee, a slice of cheesecake and a newsreel, with enough change left over to ride the trolley from Battery Park to the Polo Grounds.
Everything was better back then for sure.
Monopoly money soon.
“I prefer old money….money was better in them days”
as if i give a fook as long as i have any of the stuff
I remember well the one and only time I saw a £100 note as a child. To my young eyes it looked like a bed sheet. Even a £50 note was an event to break down the local.Would the bar man have change or the worry of it being fake….
Worth abut 10$ Next Year.
Send me a few dozen to examine
IMO, the nicest set of notes we ever had was the Lady Lavery collection.
That nun had a fiver on her head.
If money talks then €20 has little to say.
Wasn’t there an auld fella’ on the back too in a coat? Called “Scrotum” I think he was.
Should send every1 a new €20 note. Way better way to circulate them…
Jesus who gives a flying f*ck about the colour of the money as long as you have loads of it! It could be covered in sh*te and you would still spend it!
Any plans next year for a 1916 commemorative €5/€10/€20 note?
I was listening to a 1980s recording of Fr. John O’Connor O.P. talking about a saint in the 1800s predicting that Europe would be united under Germany and that Europe would share the same currency until 22 countries had it and then Germany would cause its break up of its Empire when 22 countries shared the same currency.
19 share it now just 3 more if you believe in Saints…??? Love the weird but take most with a pinch of salt…
You can’t fold any of the Euro notes a certain way to make a picture of Reg Holdsworth from Corrie like you could with the old £10 note
Will they still be as hard to get?
have your say