Talking to Real FM radio station earlier today, about recent terrorist attacks in Brussels, SYRIZA MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, made the following statements:

«All evidence indicates that this is an organized terrorist attack. According to what I hear from the experts, I would say that it must be a response by some other terrorist-core, to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, four days ago. 
Additional security measures have already been taken not only in Brussels, but all over the European countries. The worries and the fear are increased, under the influence of this new shock and I think that this requires from all of us a greater unity and cooperation as well, than to turn over national egoism and entrenchments.
If the Intelligence Services of many countries had collaborated in a basis of a common information exchange system, preventing the risk of terrorist attacks, the Belgians who had organized the attacks in Paris would had been already arrested by the French authorities. 
These persons were already identified by the Belgian police who had information about them, they had been on their radar, but there was no way that the French secret services could be informed. So, I would say that I do believe we need not to panic. Instead, we need more European collaboration on the security measures. And at the same time, we need to not make the mistake of considering every refugee as a potential terrorist or suspect for terrorism.
Moreover, the powers that be, Americans, Russians and European leaders, must find a way to bring peace in Syria. Otherwise Europe is going to live, once more, dark days.
I state all this as what I think that it should be done and not as what I think that will happen in the end. I am deeply concerned because the fascism of ISIS and of the Jihadists, who do not care about murdering innocent civilians at the metro stations, airports or shops, feeds the fear and the rise of the far-right, whose agenda is not only to close the borders and dismantle Schengen, but also destroy every chance for a united, democratic Europe».

• Dim. Papadimoulis: “The new Greek Government is very serious and very stable – it has the support of 80% of Greeks – there is absolutely no risk for a Grexit».• Jeroen Dijsselbloem: “Regarding primary surplus, we will come back during the four month extension, which will allow the new Greek government to fulfill its obligations.”

  • Jeroen Dijsselbloem: “If the economic conditions reveal that there is margin, the budgetary targets may be adjusted.”

  Speech by Dim. Papadimoulis on the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Council and response from the President of the Eurogroup, Geroun Ntaiselmploum.
  
  The Vice-President of the European Parliament and MEP of SYRIZA, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, spoke today on behalf of GUE/NGL, at the meeting of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in the European Parliament and asked questions to the President of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem on the discussion about Economic and Monetary Affairs, where the issue of Greece and its “list” of reforms was dominating.

  The full text of the speech of Dim. Papadimoulis and the relative response of Jeroen Dijsselbloem follows:
  
  Dim. Papadimoulis:

“Mr. Dijsselbloem I welcome you to the European Parliament. Just now I read the comment of the European Commission regarding the list of reforms that was filed on time by the Greek Government. It is described as “sufficiently comprehensive” and adds that the European Commission is particularly encouraged by the strong commitment of the new Greek Government to combat fraud and corruption. Do you agree with this comment, since you personally have already seen it?
I would like to reassure both fellow German Christian Democrats and British Conservatives that the new Greek Government is very serious and very stable. It has the support of 80% of the Greek citizens according to all the polls as far as the discussions that are taking place, and Greek citizens support with 80% the participation in the eurozone and there is absolutely no risk for a Grexit.

I would like to ask you two things, Mr. Dijsselbloem.

First: According to the Eurogroup decision on November 27, 2012, which you also mentioned, the Eurogroup is committed since the Greek State Budget has primary surpluses, to take additional measures for decreasing the Greek debt – without of course burdening any more the European taxpayers. There are related proposals from the Bruegel Institute that have been filled. When does the Eurogroup plan to discuss and implement, in cooperation with the Greek authorities, such measures?

And the second: You know very well that the ending program caused 25% recession in the Greek economy and a huge humanitarian crisis. Over 25% unemployment, 2,500,000 Greeks live below the poverty line, 9 out of 10 Greeks unemployed don’t receive a cent of unemployment allowance… In the statement on Friday, you have noted “adequate primary surpluses.” The new Greek Government wants primary surpluses, wants neat public finances, but has requested for a realistic downwards readjustment, of the primary surpluses agreed by the previous government, of the unrealistic 3% and 4.5%. When do you plan to give a specific definition of the word “appropriate” (“appropriate primary surpluses”) specific, in order to enhance a dynamic development of the Greek economy?
Jeroen Dijsselbloem:

“Thank you for your questions. First of all you asked me whether I share the Commisions positive assessment of the Greek first list. I can’t at this point. Because the right order is for the three institutions to provide us with some advice first and if all three of them are positive we will have a conference call later this afternoon among the ministers to be informed by that and hopefully to be supportive. Then we can continue the process, which I think is crucial, I think we should start it; this is just a first step as I said. It’s no more than a first list and a lot of work has to be done.

Then you asked about the dealing with debt sustainability and referred to the November 12 agreement Eurogroup statement. It strikes me that whenever people refer to it they only take out one of the criteria that is actually in that statement. And that’s not going to happen. There were a number of criteria. First of all it said that the Eurogroup could consider if necessary, which has to do with the question is the debt sustainable in 2020 and 2022, further measures to deal with debt sustainability, on the criteria that Greece has a primary surplus, Greece fulfilling all the commitments in the program, which of course has not happened yet.

I think those were the exact words. So the Eurogroup will consider if necessary, in other words if debt sustainability once again is jeopardized, if Greece fulfils all the commitments and the program is concluded successfully, which requires a fifth review to be concluded. Then we mentioned a couple of possibilities in terms of what kind of measures we could take.

So please if you refer to that statement, use the whole statement and not just one of the criteria. So we will come back to that issue, on the basis of the four month extension, if that is going to be agreed. That will allow the new Greek Government to fulfill its commitments, then we can finalize the whole program period, we can make a new debt sustainability analysis and then we’ll see whether it’s necessary and what further measures if necessary we can take. I think that was your questions”.

Dim. Papadimoulis:

“I asked you for the primary surplus”.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem:

“But here again you must read the statement in full, it says the “appropriate” primary surplus, referring again to the November 2012 statement. In November 2012 we came to an agreement that was basically an adjustment of the second program and it was on the basis of a rising number for primary surpluses as you know 1,5% last year, 3% this year, 4,5% next year. Now whether that is still reasonable and appropriate, we will have to see later on. The Greek economy has had a set back at the end of last year and we’ll have to see how the economy evolves over the first half of this year, then it’s up to the commission first of all, to see whether the fiscal targets and the timelines, the increase in primary surplus is still accessible, is still possible giving the economic circumstances. But that is quite a different thing from a government saying we now will no longer respect this targets. That cannot be done unilaterally. So in other words if economic circumstances so require, fiscal targets can be adjusted in programs and have been adjusted in the past. But it cannot be a unilateral decision of the government involved to say “we are no longer committed to these targets” and that’s not the way it can work”.

• «We don’t want to blackmail anyone, but we don’t want to be blackmailed from anyone either».

The Vice President of the E.P. and MEP of SYRIZA Dimitrios Papadimoulis, gave from Strasbourg an interview to the U.S. international network CNBC. Referring to the negotiations of the Greek government with the institutions of the European Union, D. Papadimoulis said the following:

Dimitrios Papadimoulis:

«Our proposal is not putting any additional weight to any taxpayer, German taxpayer or to any other European taxpayer. We want from the Eurogroup to put in force its decision, which already exists from November 2012, which says that when the Greek economy has net surpluses in its budget, the Eurogroup will decide additional measures for decreasing the Greek public debt, without putting additional burden to the European tax payers. Our effort is to find a win-win solution in the coming days and I’m very optimistic that we will succeed. We don’t want to burden anyone; we want our economy to turn towards growth».

«There is no plan B for the Greek government. Our plan is only the plan A: For Greece to become a respectful, equal member of the Euro Area and of the European Union. Having development of its economy, reducing the unemployment, putting in force a lot of reforms related with the administration, the tax system, cracking down the oligarchy phenomenon in the Greek economy, which is a very annoying phenomenon, because it creates gaps in the open competition of the real economy; and also for us, the crucial point is that we had a program in Greece which totally failed. Our goal is to find a solution commonly accepted from Greece and also from our partners. As Vice-President of the European Parliament, I can assure you that the large majority in the E.P. faces the problem like that».

Journalist:

– To finish give me a very brief answer, what would the Eurozone lose by seeing Greece leave?

Dim. Papadimoulis:

«The Grexit does not exist as a real chance, because the common interest of the whole Euro area is for Greece to remain in the Euro. Yesterday ILO published a study which says that in Germany there will be a huge increase of unemployment, if there is a case for a Grexit and also all the experts say that in this case, which really does not exist; there will be a domino effect for all the Euro area and for the whole European Union. It’s important to note that in the U.K. which doesn’t participate in the Euro area there are fears for such a scenario... So I repeat: we don’t want to blackmail anyone, but we don’t want to be blackmailed from anyone either».

He said: “The Greek banking sector remains adequately capitalised and fully covered and the Greek government continues negotiations with European partners to reach a new agreement that will benefit Greek people and all Eurozone countries. The austerity era has come to an end.”

He added: “This is a violent move from the ECB at a time when in Greece the humanitarian crisis has never been more acute and unemployment is at its highest ever levels.”