Led by its president the Dutchman Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the 17 EU memberstates using the Euro (the Eurogroup) continue sedulously strangling the Greek people.
This week the Eurogroup ministers let know that the next tranche of loans for Greece as well as money for bank recapitalisation only will be released after the Greek government implements agreed reforms.
Prime among the disagreements for the Greeks is protection for poorer families in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure.
But Dijsselbloem said passing these foreclosures are key before banks could be recapitalised because it had a direct impact on the number of bad loans that banks would have to deal with through recapitalisation.
Obviously, for the socialist Dijsselbloem, it is banks first and then the people. The Greek government said it would need a political decision to overcome a dispute so that thousands of poorer Greeks would not be at risk of losing their homes as banks repossess them.
Greek officials stress that Athens wants to fulfill the points of the bailout agreement. But the government has also the responsibility to keep social cohesion, what means not making life even more difficult for poorer citizens. A Eurogroup official responded laconically, ‘the Eurogroup will press Greece to find sufficient solutions’.
The Eurogroup refused also to take in account the unforeseen costs for Greece to take care of the daily ongoing inflow of thousands of refugees and asylumseekers, providing them food and housing.
In the meantime the Greeks are back in the streets of Athens, in despair…
