ECOLOGIST GREENS – GREECE
Faced with today’s important vote in parliament on the draft law concerning the Greek proposal to the institutions and empowering for the final deal, the Ecologists Greens issued an open letter with six points to the Prime Minister and the Greek Government:
1. We remain firmly in favor of the euro and Europe of citizens and solidarity. We are not forgetting the result of the referendum last Sunday and we stress that the choice of NO was dominant for a change in policy at the European level but also for the promotion of the Greek problem as European.
2. We recognize that the proposed agreement is very hard and is a retreat in order to achieve an honest painful compromise and agreement. We commend the essential elements in the agreement seem to be moving towards a more equitable social distribution of financial burdens and to address structural problems in the country. We ask the Government to put it into practice. But we will not accept it as a supposed counterweight against a series of recessionary measures with which we have expressed our opposition many times.
3. We consider necessary as a counterweight to the agreement to ensure a substantial debt relief, with haircut, to erase a part of the onerous debt, and lengthen the repayment, so as to ensure sustainability and to avoid any future need for additional funding. We recognize the efforts for a solution to the debt issue at the European level, and we believe that this course should immediately be confirmed.
4. The Ecologists Greens ask furthermore to ensure appropriate conditions for the implementation of the support package of the economy, front-loading, and favorable conditions for small and medium enterprises and social entrepreneurship. We also propose to process and fund a Green New Deal, greater than the ‘Juncker package’.
5. We understand that we are in the middle of a battle of a difficult war. We do not forget the responsibilities of the previous governments of the last five years, we don’t ignore the little time that was available for the government to negotiate, nor the mistakes made during that period. We realize that the road to prosperity must go through strategically creating political time with appropriate financial liquidity for the government. We wish however to point out that unsustainable measures should be accompanied by appropriate policies to be match the sacrifices of our people. The Government should change rota and begin to run more efficiently in order to create alternatives for people who are pressed under the weight of austerity measures.
6. In particular we stress the need for a radical change of course towards sustainability, justice and democracy. Ecologists Greens expect immediate response of our government and cooperation for:
– A new sustainable energy plan, which gives weight to de-invest on fossil fuels and promotes renewable energy sources with a decentralized character and with social participation.
– Promoting the social economy, entrepreneurship and solidarity.
– An alternative use of public property which has come to HRADF (for the Greek at the base of the Polytechnic proposal) in order to maximize the benefit for the State and local communities. But also create a safeguard for the “use of public property” full implementation with European standards and norms. We also consider nonnegotiable the the public character of unconstructed natural sites, protected areas, natural landscapes and wetland complexes.
– The application of environmental tax
– The taxation of church property
– The conversion of ENFIA in a progressive wealth tax
– The reduction in defense spending
– The introduction of proportional representation at the parliament.
The Ecologists Greens therefore support the imminent agreement with a sense of responsibility and commitment to work and struggles, while noting that it is an opportunity to make the necessary efforts towards sustainability and always under our electoral agreement. Our MP George Dimaras, elected by SYRIZA will vote for the proposal of the Government.
The Executive Secretary of the Ecologists Greens “.