Dear correspondents and journalists,
This Monday and Tuesday I will be part of a delegation of the economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON) of the European Parliament to Athens. We will meet the minister of finance Euklid Tsakalotos, several other members of the government as well as representatives of the Parliament and of the social partners. Personally, I will also meet the Institute for regulatory policy research, the President of the Competition Authority and the Governor of the independent revenues authority.
I am particularly interested whether the reforms of the state have made substantial progress or not. In Germany and in EU institutions, politicians, who supported the one-sided austerity measures, often claim that Greece has hardly made any progress towards sustainable structural reforms such as good governance in general and effective and equitable tax collection in particular. This claim, made by Conservatives and Liberals, deserves thorough scrutiny.
If you are interested to get more insights into my visit, please, feel free to contact me or my office either via sven.giegold@ep.europa.eu or via landline +32 2 28 45369.
Best regards,
MEP Sven Giegold,
Financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group