Around The Horn In Greece

German tax collectors in Athens

by (AthensNewsWeb) 25 Feb 2012

Hans Bernhard Beus More than 160 German financial services executives are willing to come to Greece in order to strengthen the Greek tax mechanism, according to a report to be published in the German magazine 'Wirtschafts Woche', which will be released on Monday.   The magazine cites German deputy finance minister Hans Bernhard Beus, who explains that a key factor is the knowledge of a foreign language - some of them speak Greek - while the return to active duty of retired tax collectors should not be ruled out.   Many come from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, whose finance minister, Norbert Walter-Borjans, compares Greece's with 90s East Germany, noting that even the East Germans at the time were suspecious towards the West. "In Greece suspicion will be greater, in part because of the inappropriate language used by some in Germany," he said.   The article also refers to a confidential report from the European Commission, according to which the mechanism of tax collection in Greece is especially problematic. and.... Private investors seek exemption from haircut 24 Feb 2012 (File photo) A lobby group representing private investors in the European Union has asked the Prime Minister Lucas Papademos to exclude them from a 53.5 percent haircut on Greek government bonds.   The government will launch a bond swap for institutional and individual holders of its debton Friday in an attempt to slice off some of its liabilities, as a condition of the 130bn euro rescue package.   "We believe it is highly unfair to treat EU individuals the same way as institutional investors, as EU individuals were excluded from the negotiations and often cannot deduct the losses from their taxes as institutional investors do," Guillaume Prache, secretary general of Euroshareholders, an umbrella organisation for around 30 national shareholder groups, said in a letter addressed to Papademos.   Euroshareholders is a Brussels-based umbrella organisation for around 30 national shareholder associations across the European Union.   "Euroshareholders are kindly asking you to exclude individual bond holders from the forced haircut participation, or at least to make sure that individual investors from the European Union will be able to deduct losses from their taxes," Prache said.   Around 1 percent of Greek debt is in the hands of private investors, a spokesman for German shareholder lobby group DSW said. DSW is represented by umbrella organisation Euroshareholders. (Reuters) and the matter of passing 38 measures by thursday is still in progress.... Government's race with time for reforms The government is in a race with time in order to meet the deadlines for the ratification of the reforms required for the disbursement of the second set of bailout loans. Everything must be in place for the March 1 deadline, when the European Union summit begins in Brussels. Now that the official offer for the swapping of Greek bonds was made on Friday, Athens still has to pass two crucial bills and issue a series of circulars and ministerial decisions. They concern, among others, the abolition of the extension of validity of expired collective labor contracts, the lifting of the ban on civil servant layoffs, the end to experience bonuses on private contracts and the full application of the single salary system for all state workers. On Friday Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said the legislative process is continuing at a satisfactory pace. and.... Toward a new kind of election By Costas Iordanidis Lucas Papademos’s partners in the government -- Antonis Samaras of New Democracy and Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK -- hailed in optimistic tones the decision of the Eurogroup, which also included a deal for bondholders of Greek debt to accept a write-down. There is no point in questioning their authority, but it is worth remembering that the benefits of such deals can only be judged once they are put into practice. Since then, the specter, or -- to put it mildly -- the prospect, of general elections has emerged. There is nothing unusual about the fact that Samaras and PASOK leadership hopeful Venizelos want elections as soon as possible. Both parties have entered a phase of near-disintegration that can be expected to worsen significantly as the measures they have to impose by June are abhorrent to the average Greek. Both men are hastening to get through the door before the worst happens, hoping to head off the emergence of new political parties and any further gains in popularity by the parties of the left. The optimism they have generated within the political system over the decisions made in Brussels will, therefore, be fervently maintained. However, because public opinion polls have recorded a significant drop in the popularity of the country’s two biggest parties and because the next government is sure to be a coalition of some sort that will be called upon to manage the policy drawn up by PASOK -- first by Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou and then by his successor, Venizelos -- it would be wise for the electoral contest to be held outside the context of the traditional rivalry between the two parties, which have anyway converged so much over the economy and other issues that the differences between them are almost imperceptible. New Democracy and PASOK may try to lure voters by highlighting the quality of their staff; but they are more likely to cause mirth. What is certain is that they will both focus their campaigns on the hopeful prospects of remaining in the euro and the abyss of returning to the drachma. A lot of coarseness is inevitable on such a playing field. The sensible thing to do -- especially after Samaras’s about-face -- would be for PASOK and ND to continue supporting Papademos. It is clear that over the past few days the two parties have coveted the “legitimization” of their decisions. But it may be too late, as the skepticism of the people toward all politicians is growing by the day. Too bad; they should have been more wary, because no system collapses unless the political leadership leads it to destruction.