#ThisIsACoup July 12, 2015 Europe will never be the same

[Jefferson23]

The humiliating offer presented by Eurozone finance ministers to the Greek government is designed to bring down Syriza - discussed by Dimitri Lascaris and Michalis Spourdalakis, interviewed by Paul Jay

- July 13, 2015

Bio

Dimitri Lascaris is a partner with the Canadian law firm of Siskinds, where he heads the firm's securities class actions practice. Before joining Siskinds, he practiced securities law in the New York and Paris offices of a major Wall Street law firm. Last year, he was named by Canadian Business magazine as one of the 50 most influential business people in Canada, and was described by the magazine as "the fiercest advocate for shareholder rights" in Canada. He is currently prosecuting numerous securities class actions in Canada, including the Sino-Forest class action, in which his clients just negotiated the largest auditor settlement in Canadian history: a $117 million settlement with the accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Michael Spourdalakis is a professor of political sociology and the Director at the Laboratory of Political Communication and Media Information at the University of Athens. He is currently co-director of the Canadian Studies Center at the University of Athens, and is the editor of The Socialist Register in Greece.
Transcript
#ThisIsACoupPAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay.

The words being used as the negotiations between the European finance ministers and leaders of Europe's countries involved in the Eurozone and the Greek government are words that are usually used around times of war. Humiliation. Dignity. Well, what will Greece emerge with? It wasn't very long ago, just a few days ago, there was a referendum, and the referendum was about the dignity of Greece. Would people vote no to an agreement they thought was humiliating.

Well, they did vote no. And now the negotiations that are taking place, in spite of that referendum, the Greek government offered up a set of proposals that wasn't very far from those that were rejected. But Germany, it seems, is driving through a proposal that even goes further than everything presented before.

So now joining us to talk about all of this is first of all, from London, Ontario, Dimitri Lascaris. Dimitri is a partner with the Canadian law firm of Siskinds, where he heads the firm's securities class actions practice. He's also a board member of the Real News. And joining us from Athens is Michalis Spourdalakis. He's the dean of the School of Economics and Politics at the University of Athens.

Dimitri, could you just first of all give us a quick summation of where things are at now? Apparently meetings are even still going on. And we're recording this after midnight in Europe, but apparently the negotiations are still going on. And so as best as we know, where are things at?

DIMITRI LASCARIS, SECURITIES CLASS ACTIONS LAWYER IN CANADA ]My understanding is that Greece has been given, the Greek government has been given an option of a temporary exit from the Eurozone, which I understand would be envisioned to last for approximately five years. I understand that that would be coupled with some amount of humanitarian assistance, and that Greece would have the opportunity to return to the Eurozone potentially in five years' time. It would have to reapply, and undoubtedly go through some sort of rigorous screening mechanism.

The other option for it remaining in is that it adopted a number of measures pretty much immediately. Seven would have to be implemented, seven straight away. One is the streamlining of that, the broadening of the tax base. The sustainability of the pension system, the adoption of a code of civil procedure. The safeguarding of legal independence for the statistics office in Greece, the full implementation of automatic spending cuts, and satisfaction of bank recovery and resolution directives.

All of this is obviously quite technical, but that is a--I could tell you that as a lawyer who is fairly familiar with the legislative process, to have to address those subjects within the space of three days is an impossible task, in my view. I mean, it cannot be done in a thorough, intelligent, and responsible manner in so short a period of time.

In addition to that, I understand that there would have to be some initiation of a legislative process towards another five points. One is the privatization of the electricity transmission grid, decisive action on not nonperforming loans of banks, ensuring the independence of the privatization body, the depoliticization of the Greek administration--that in and of itself strikes me as a herculean, time-consuming task. And the return of officials from the Troika to Athens, something that has been politically toxic to this government, and with good reason.

When I look at the--and there's been discussion also about Greece placing $50 billion of assets in a trust, which it has emerged under the German proposal would be controlled by a corporation that has links to Wolfgang Schauble.

JAY: He's actually, he's the actual chair of the board, if I understand it correctly, of the company that's the holding company of the institution.

LASCARIS: Right. That's my understanding as well.

JAY: And Michalis, this $50 billion of Greek valuable assets that are supposed to be put into this trust--I mean, it's such--this is what everybody is calling humiliating. Every journalist reporting on this is using this word, humiliating. The $50 billion fund seems to be designed so that these talks have to fail. What do you make of this, Michalis?

MICHALIS SPOURDALAKIS, DEAN, SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICS, UNIV. OF ATHENS: Well, I remember having given a public talk about the, almost three years ago, with one of today's cabinet ministers. And he, Giorgos Stathakis, and he was telling back then that if we were to privatize public property, these wouldn't exceed eight or probably $10 billion Euros. Now the task of raising $50 billion Euros by selling public property, it's a task that cannot be achieved, and it's part of the humiliation.

But part of the humiliation is the legal processes that they're proposing. And they're proposing to Syriza to follow the path of the previous governments, where the habit of the previous governments is to violate or come near to violation of our constitutional regulations. I mean, how on earth you can pass in a week six major legislations, you know, it's impossible. You can do it only if you actually bypass any parliamentary procedure and any kind of parliamentary dialog and exchange. It's part of the plan to humiliate the Greek government.

LASCARIS: And I just want to--you know, Michael's talking about the constitutional aspects, obviously extremely important in any sovereign nation. I'm talking about the practical aspects. There are those--it's a two-edged sword here. I mean, the--merely the practical implications of trying to pass this vast body of legislation within the space of several days is to me in and of itself a clear message that the creditors do not want a deal with Greece. They cannot possibly believe that this can be done in a remotely responsible manner in a democracy in so short a period of time. And that's exclusive of those important constitutional considerations that Michael identified.

JAY: Well, Tsipras has not walked. At least, not as of the time of us doing this interview. Apparently he's raised four objections to the, what's been presented to him, one of which of course is jettison the $50 billion of assets. No IMF involvement. Now, why is that so important that he wants no IMF involvement?

LASCARIS: I mean, that's an interesting question. From my perspective the creditors have all been equally, with possible exception of some of the Eurozone governments, equally ruthless and insistent and unreasonable in their dealings with the Greek government. I think there may be a perception, Michael may be able to speak to this better than I could, within Greece that the IMF is perhaps more an instrument of American imperialism than the other institutions. For me, for my perspective, they're all equally as noxious.

in full: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14231

[snagglepuss]

1. This is very informative. Thanks for posting.

k and r

[Jefferson23]

2. You're very welcome and thanks for the kick too. n/t