Merkel wants to poach Greece’s sovereignity

By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | “Greece must make up its mind”, warns the federal minister of Finance in Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, from an interview for The Wall Street Journal. Schäuble states that the euro zone could refuse to grant Greece a new bailout and, if it did so, it would be pushing the Greeks to a default. Schäuble has decided to demand the permanent presence of a EU Commissioner who will have the control of Greece’s government accounts, and who also will have the right of veto over parliamentary decisions concerning the state budget.

This decision of the German federal minister of Finance involves a real loss of economic sovereignty for Greece. According to Yozi Truman, analyst for Ahorro Corporación Financiera (ACF), this demand is

“another step towards the increasingly inevitable exit of Greece from the EU and from the euro.”

For its part, the federal minister of Economics and Technology of Germany, Philipp Rösler, on Monday demanded in The Bild a

“bigger control and direction” by EU about Greece, and he has also remarked that patience with Athens’ promises of reforms “is coming to an end.”

Truman considers that

“as long as Germany doesn’t accept that the EU is an economic, politic and social common area, where there are places with permanent deficit, the EU is doomed to disappear.”

This Monday, European leaders will sign the Treaty to create the bailout fund that will start to be operative in July. However, its capitalisation negotiation isn’t due until March. According to Banesto’s analysts, peripheral countries

“expect that Germany will finally accept an increase of the amount, when the Treaty of fiscal discipline will be signed.”