Hellenic
Parliament’s Debt Truth Committee Preliminary Findings - Executive
Summary of the report
Key
points:
“All
the evidence we present in this report shows that Greece not only
does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay
this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the
Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental
human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the
conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is
illegal, illegitimate, and odious. It has also come to the
understanding of the Committee that the unsustainability of the Greek
public debt was evident from the outset to the international
creditors, the Greek authorities, and the corporate media. Yet, the
Greek authorities, together with some other governments in the EU,
conspired against the restructuring of public debt in 2010 in order
to protect financial institutions. The corporate media hid the truth
from the public by depicting a situation in which the bailout was
argued to benefit Greece, whilst spinning a narrative intended to
portray the population as deservers of their own wrongdoings.”
“The
use of the bailout money is strictly dictated by the creditors, and
so, it is revealing that less than 10% of these funds have been
destined to the government’s current expenditure.”
“...
the increase in debt was not due to excessive public spending, which
in fact remained lower than the public spending of other Eurozone
countries, but rather due to the payment of extremely high rates of
interest to creditors, excessive and unjustified military spending,
loss of tax revenues due to illicit capital outflows, state
recapitalization of private banks, and the international imbalances
created via the flaws in the design of the Monetary Union itself.
Adopting the euro led to a drastic increase of private debt in Greece
to which major European private banks as well as the Greek banks were
exposed. A growing banking crisis contributed to the Greek sovereign
debt crisis. George Papandreou’s government helped to present the
elements of a banking crisis as a sovereign debt crisis in 2009 by
emphasizing and boosting the public deficit and debt.”
“They
[mechanisms devised by the agreements that were implemented since May
2010] created a substantial amount of new debt to bilateral creditors
and the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), whilst generating
abusive costs thus deepening the crisis further. The mechanisms
disclose how the majority of borrowed funds were transferred directly
to financial institutions. Rather than benefitting Greece, they have
accelerated the privatization process, through the use of financial
instruments.”
“...
the creditors imposed intrusive conditionalities attached to the loan
agreements, which led directly to the economic unviability and
unsustainability of debt. These conditionalities, on which the
creditors still insist, have not only contributed to lower GDP as
well as higher public borrowing, hence a higher public debt/GDP
making Greece’s debt more unsustainable, but also engineered
dramatic changes in the society, and caused a humanitarian crisis.
The Greek public debt can be considered as totally unsustainable at
present.”
“The
drastic adjustments, imposed on the Greek economy and society as a
whole, have brought about a rapid deterioration of living standards,
and remain incompatible with social justice, social cohesion,
democracy and human rights.”
“The
agreements contain abusive clauses, effectively coercing Greece to
surrender significant aspects of its sovereignty. This is imprinted
in the choice of the English law as governing law for those
agreements, which facilitated the circumvention of the Greek
Constitution and international human rights obligations.”
“Debt
to the IMF should be considered illegal since its concession breached
the IMF’s own statutes, and its conditions breached the Greek
Constitution, international customary law, and treaties to which
Greece is a party. It is also illegitimate, since conditions included
policy prescriptions that infringed human rights obligations.
Finally, it is odious since the IMF knew that the imposed measures
were undemocratic, ineffective, and would lead to serious violations
of socio-economic rights.”
“Debts
to the ECB should be considered illegal since the ECB over-stepped
its mandate by imposing the application of macroeconomic adjustment
programs (e.g. labour market deregulation) via its participation in
the Troïka. Debts to the ECB are also illegitimate and odious, since
the principal raison d’etre of the Securities Market Programme
(SMP) was to serve the interests of the financial institutions,
allowing the major European and Greek private banks to dispose of
their Greek bonds.”
“The
EFSF engages in cash-less loans which should be considered illegal
because Article 122(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) was violated, and further they breach several
socio-economic rights and civil liberties. Moreover, the EFSF
Framework Agreement 2010 and the Master Financial Assistance
Agreement of 2012 contain several abusive clauses revealing clear
misconduct on the part of the lender. The EFSF also acts against
democratic principles, rendering these particular debts illegitimate
and odious.”
“The
bilateral loans should be considered illegal since they violate the
procedure provided by the Greek constitution. The loans involved
clear misconduct by the lenders, and had conditions that contravened
law or public policy. Both EU law and international law were breached
in order to sideline human rights in the design of the macroeconomic
programmes. The bilateral loans are furthermore illegitimate, since
they were not used for the benefit of the population, but merely
enabled the private creditors of Greece to be bailed out. Finally,
the bilateral loans are odious since the lender states and the
European Commission knew of potential violations, but in 2010 and
2012 avoided to assess the human rights impacts of the macroeconomic
adjustment and fiscal consolidation that were the conditions for the
loans.”
“The
debt to private creditors should be considered illegal because
private banks conducted themselves irresponsibly before the Troika
came into being, failing to observe due diligence, while some private
creditors such as hedge funds also acted in bad faith. Parts of the
debts to private banks and hedge funds are illegitimate for the same
reasons that they are illegal; furthermore, Greek banks were
illegitimately recapitalized by tax-payers. Debts to private banks
and hedge funds are odious, since major private creditors were aware
that these debts were not incurred in the best interests of the
population but rather for their own benefit.”
“Having
concluded a preliminary investigation, the Committee considers that
Greece has been and still is the victim of an attack premeditated and
organized by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central
Bank, and the European Commission. This violent, illegal, and immoral
mission aimed exclusively at shifting private debt onto the public
sector.”
Full
report:
In summary:
ReplyDelete"Anyone who lent us money is stupid (or criminal) and should have known better. Repaying what we owe is inconvenient, so we'll call our debts "illegitimate, illegal, and odious"" consider them null and void.
Ok. And you were expecting further loans from us? No, seriously?
More accurate summary:
ReplyDeleteThe debt occurred as a result of criminal actions by bankers and politicians, both Greek and foreign. The present Greek government cannot be held responsible for the criminal actions of previous governments, nor for the criminal actions of foreign banks. The only moral course is therefore to refuse to pay the debt, even at the cost of having to leave the Euro and the EU - which actually may or may not be such a bad thing; nobody has tried before, so nobody knows. Many countries seem to be prospering outside the EU and Euro, including Norway and Switzerland, for example, and Greece has better weather and more desirable real estate than either.
The Greek government does not need to borrow any more money. In fact, it didn't need to borrow any in the first place. All it has ever needed to do is to tax the rich and make them actually pay their tax bills.