Court Rules - Germany can deny benefits to jobless EU migrants

This gets to the heart of what many see as being the major problem with the concept of free movement and something commonly known as Welfare Tourism.

Welfare Tourism is not necessarily 'scamming' by claimants, but is the practice of weighing up which country in the EU provides the best and easiest to access benefits.

The concept of the free movement of workers between EU countries should be seen as a positive, workers should be in a position to either accept jobs in foreign countries OR travel to other EU countries in search of work (under their own steam so to speak), it should not be the responsibility of the recipient country to provide benefits (incl housing) while they are searching for employment.

Ireland; along with many western EU countries has been blighted by specific groups arriving to our shores and registering for housing and benefits from the outset - many have gone on to never work.

Compliments to The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/11/germany-deny-benefits-welfare-jobless-eu-migrants

The European court of justice (ECJ) has ruled that Germany can refuse welfare benefits to EU migrants if they have never held a job in the country.

In a landmark ruling on “benefit tourism” that could set an EU-wide legal precedent, the Luxembourg court announced on Tuesday that “economically inactive” migrants from other EU nations can be refused German unemployment benefits under certain conditions.

Downing Street said it would look very closely at the ruling and argued that it vindicated David Cameron’s moves to restrict benefits to EU migrants.“I think one of the things that it underlines has been that the freedom of movement, as the prime minister and others have said, is not an unqualified right,” Cameron’s spokesman said. “We will look very carefully at what we and other governments can do working together in response to this judgment.” Asked whether this will make it easier for the government to bring in further controls, the spokesman said: “We have already said prior to this judgment that we are looking to see what further measures can be taken and following that judgment that work will continue.”

The case was prompted after Elisabeta Dano, a 25-year-old Romanian woman living in Leipzig, had her application for benefits refused. The local jobcentre argued that there was a lack of evidence to prove that the woman, who has lived in Germany since 2010, had ever actively looked for work.

After an appeal was rejected by a Leipzig social court, the case was transferred to the ECJ.
In its ruling, the ECJ emphasised that while EU migrants had the right of residence in another EU country for up to three months, the country was under no obligation to pay social benefits during that period. If migrants stay for more than three months but less than three years, right of residence is dependent on whether they have sufficient resources to support themselves or their family members.
The eagerly anticipated ruling could be interpreted as a victory, or a blow, for Cameron. It is a victory in the sense that it supports the British government’s drive to curb benefit abuse by EU migrants. The British, Danish and Irish had voiced strong support for the German position in the dispute. But it is also a defeat in the sense that the ruling means that these curbs can be achieved within the existing rules.

Had the ruling gone the other way, it would have probably triggered a debate about reforming freedom of movement in Germany. Now, British calls for an overhaul of the existing systems are less likely to be heard.In Britain, the ruling was welcomed by members of both the government and the opposition. Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope said that while the ruling addressed German legislation, it would have “wide-ranging implications for how the UK can tighten its welfare system to ensure only migrants that make a contribution can receive something back”.“This court case and this ruling show quite clearly that the UK is not alone in its concerns about restoring free movement to its core principle: free movement of labour. The government will be heartened by this decision today,” he said.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Labour welcomes today’s ruling on restricting benefits to immigrants from EU member states who travel simply to claim benefits. Labour has repeatedly called on the government to act to ensure that the UK benefit system is only there for those prepared to contribute, including extending the three month waiting time EU migrants have to wait before claiming benefits and ending the unfair practice of child benefit being sent abroad. It’s now time for ministers to act.”

The Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder said: “Today’s ruling shows that while EU free movement is non-negotiable, it is not an unfettered right. Liberal Democrats are clear that the freedom to live, work and study across the continent should not mean the freedom to claim. Safeguards can and should be put in place to prevent benefit tourism and abuse of the system.”

Sleeping giant of public opinion has awoken and now water will wash away the Coalition

Compliments to Martina Devlin in The Irish Independent 06/11/2014

Its been a long time since we've had such honest journalism in Ireland.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/martina-devlin/sleeping-giant-of-public-opinion-has-awoken-and-now-water-will-wash-away-the-coalition-30722554.html

Tick-tock. The meter is ticking now - not for those loathed water charges but to mark the Irish people's dwindling patience with this sinking Government, which is conspicuously out of step with its citizens.

Tick-tock. Enda Kenny is turning into a lame duck Taoiseach, deaf to the public clamour. He reached a nadir when he paused, in black tie en route to a party, and warned of a 4pc tax hike if water charges weren't paid. I half expected him to snap "off with their heads" as he turned away.

Tick-tock. Two days of mass marching, and another day lined up for December - the sleeping giant of public opinion has been awakened and protests are growing. What a mistake that's been for the Government. Because this is about so much more than water charges now. This is a pent-up reaction gushing out against the double-dealing, greed, arrogance, cronyism and downright stupidity of an unfit-for-purpose political system. A system which expects the working poor, as many of us have become after six years of austerity, to keep on making sacrifices. Even when there is nothing left on the bone. This time, we are ordered to finance a super-quango with a bonus culture. No wonder people aren't inclined to stump up.

Tick-tock. Who truly believes the first lot of water taxes will be used to repair the network?
That's not credible when an over-staffed and over-compensated Irish Water has already soaked up €86m in consultancy and legal fees. If the network is really in such disarray, a halt should be called to installing water meters, with resources redirected towards infrastructure work instead.

Tick-tock. The awoken giant of public opinion is contemplating justice and fairness - and how both were sacrificed when Europe insisted Ireland meet all bank debts, so that German and French investors who took a gamble wouldn't lose out.

The giant is rubbing its eyes, wondering why its Government didn't fight harder in Europe to protect Irish citizens, and why senior politicians preferred the easier option of another new tax. Did they think us too sunk in inertia to notice yet another deduction? Or too cowed to care? Or too stupid to realise the conservation argument was a fig leaf for revenue generation? The giant is on its feet now and has taken to the streets. "This is what democracy feels like. This is what democracy looks like. This is what democracy sounds like." That was the chant from 4,000 throats on the demonstration I marched in last Saturday. Similar slogans were roared out around the country from some 150,000 protesters - and they were not the 'usual suspects', but ordinary people pushed to the brink. The march I attended was organised by Richard Boyd Barrett and People Before Profit, but it was an apolitical gathering. There were marchers from a variety of political persuasions and marchers with no affiliations.

Tick-tock. Some of the people on the streets were Fine Gael and Labour voters. TDs in marginal seats ought to be afraid. Very afraid. Even those in 'safe' seats can expect to feel a chill wind. Support for the Coalition is ebbing faster than those gallons of water we're told is lost through leaky pipes.
Enda, let me tell you how democracy in action felt. It felt good. It felt like active citizenship - people engaging with government and expressing a view on the way we are governed, rather than waiting for the blood sport of election day.

Tick-tock. There were marchers behind homemade banners who've never demonstrated before. Marchers who last went out to protest in the 1980s. Marchers with adult children back living with them in the family home because they can't afford one of their own. Marchers whose children have emigrated because they see no future in Ireland.

Marchers who say they've never failed to pay a bill before. But this one is a bill too far.
And what provoked those crowds to pour in, in their tens of thousands, some 150,000 in all, to those rallies last Saturday? Deep-seated disillusionment. A weariness with mainstream politics, now thoroughly discredited as being incapable of reform. To categorise this growing movement as founded in anti-austerity is to misunderstand it. It was fascinating to observe the marchers as they arrived. To watch them find spaces for their cars where nobody would be blocked in, and take care to pay for parking. To see them strap their children into buggies to keep them safe. And produce rain wear, because heavy clouds weren't going to deter them. These were law-abiding, prudent people. They understood tough decisions had to be taken if Ireland was to regain its sovereignty. But they expected some solidarity in return - not a disconnected elite. Environment Minister Alan Kelly adds no reassurance when he says water bills will be modest and affordable. Charges, once introduced, have a habit of being ratcheted up.

Tick-tock. Labour is just as disconnected as Fine Gael. Really, Joan Burton, I'm surprised at you for forgetting what a struggle life has become for some of your constituents if you can casually refer to a €200 bill. This water charge is a regressive tax because it hits everyone the same irrespective of income - sacrificing the weak in society. Politicians have a responsibility to the people, not the party. At least Labour's senators realised that when they voted against the Government yesterday, helping to pass a motion for a referendum to protect water from privatisation.

Tick-tock. "This is what democracy feels like," went the chant. It felt good, Enda. The last time it felt as good was when the Fianna Fail/Green coalition was shown the road in 2011.
The current regime has forgotten it governs solely by the will of the people.
As each day passes, with minister after minister defending water charges, some with soft words and some with big sticks, the people are growing more sullen.

Tick-tock. Something has to give. A few concessions won't stem the tide any more.

Irish Independent

The ECB (Trichet) Letter to Brian Lenihan

Following the release of the ECB "Trichet" Letter to Brian Lenihan and his insistence that "Ireland" take a Bailout or the ECB would cut all funding, a lot of nonsense has appeared in the Irish Media, but nobody (so far) has addressed the core of the issue - "Ireland" did not require a bailout, a bailout would only be required "if" Ireland decided to honour the Bonds issued by Private Banks and bought by International Financiers who are supposedly experts in their field - this was the ultimate in "stitch ups".

• It was "Private" Banks and their borrowing from other Private Banks & Bondholders (primarily financial institutions), supervised by the ECB that required the bail-out – not ‘Ireland’.

• When the infamous ‘Guarantee’ was made, these banks had knowingly, understated the extent of their losses in communications with public officials.

• Originally, Ireland should have refused to Guarantee more debt than it was informed of or aware of.

• If the ECB wanted or needed the losses of various Private Banks and Bond Holders to be bailed out or assisted, then the ECB should have stumped up the money itself via some quickly thought up ECB liquidity guarantee scheme (subject to controls) - effectively discounted loans to the Banks and Financial Institutions, which we pretty much have now.

• Bearing in mind the effect of the mountain of fraudulent ‘AAA’ rated mortgage backed securities sold into the EU’s banks from the US, there was more than enough justification for the ECB to look to sand-bagging European Financial Institutions prior to the impending tsunami.

• Did we get any redress from Wall St. banks in filling Europe’s banks with these worthless ‘assets’ ? Did any spineless, bought, EU politician even suggest it? Bully boy tactics were used on Ireland by its so called partners. 

Of course, for Irish politicians, bearing no personal or financial repercussions themselves, dumping this ‘odious’ debt; which was 42% of the cost of the entire Euro zone banking losses; was the easy way out for them. Just tell the disgusting lie to the Irish people that it was because ‘we all partied’… and thus had some moral obligation, the ‘fools’ will believe it.

Doubtless they thought the people still cowed & unquestioning under the yoke of the Catholic church would meekly accept this lie and to be fair - most of the unquestioning Irish population did just as expected

However let me remind the supporters of our Governments mantra and actions - NAMA; where the vast bulk of the bad loans were transferred; didn’t take any individual loan of less than €20 million in nominal value. Now, how many of us "partied" with loans of more than €20 million ? - not many.

No, "we" didn’t party. In fact household (mortgage) debt is only "now" being resolved – yet again in  favour of the Banks and not the Citizens; who were duped into buying overpriced houses (in most cases because they needed a home) and it was either accept the loans banks were begging them to take (and assuring their prudent "affordability", yadda yadda, yadda), or pay inflated rents as tenants for inferior rental houses (absence of rental/tenant laws serves political cronies)

The vast majority of people losing their homes now, through mortgage foreclosure, are doing so under yet another disgusting episode in Irish History, and the silence on the part of the mainstream media is deafening, too busy sucking up to their friends in the political classes trying to talk up the country’s non-recovery. (And totally ignoring also that the rest of the Eurozone itself is collapsing back into recession or stagnating..)

If we had not had the totally unnecessary and gratuitous policy of Euro zone wide Austerity when our economies could have been stimulated back to growth, then a great many of those now losing their homes would have had the jobs and wage income to enable them to maintain their mortgages. That is a fact. At no point since this crisis began have Irish Government politicians, or public servants, or others of our ‘Political Classes’, or many in the media actually represented the interests of the majority of citizens. At every turn, they have represented the (opposite) interests of the Capital owning few… which includes many Political Leaders, their Cronies and Close Supporters.
 
That is "not" meaningful ‘democracy’.

And now behind closed doors and in secret "talks", these same political classes have been drumming up an Orwellian termed "Trade Agreement" between the EU and US – the ‘TTIP’.

The TTIP has little to do with ‘trade’, and everything to with handing even more power to the Banks, Financial Institutions and Global Corporations over our elected governments. Including the ‘ISDS’ (Investor State Dispute Settlement) terms, whereby banks and corporations may sue governments for loss of future profits and other compensation for any ‘legislation’ which interferes with their "business", including any annoying social or environmental protections and these cases will not be decided via the normal Judicial Process but in special ‘Tribunals’… doubtless so they can be filled with Corporate (revolving door) placemen and retired politicians (experts) as ‘adjudicators’.

None of the major political parties in Ireland or the EU represent the citizens’ interests. They need to be thrown out of office and the system reformed from the inside.

The Ultimate In Submission

Like the submissive sheep they are, the few hundred "Jail the Bankers" demonstrators in Dublin tonight were led away from the Parliament Buildings (Leinster House) and proceeded to queue up and take turns protesting at a Dublin Garda Station then quietly melted away into the Dublin evening.

Dublin and Ireland then reverted to its standard mode of "whining and dining".

Meanwhile outside Leinster House the anti whatever tax hunger strike continues as the elite and their collaborators look on from their well fed pensionable offices.

So what was tonight all about? 

It was originally arranged as a non-political citizens demonstration, however it was clear the extreme left had taken the lead, the almost professional demonstrator class who always seem to win no argument, the political leaning which deters many and clearly not representative of the disillusioned former Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, Sinn Fein etc voters.

As people queued to be admitted to the Garda Station in groups of three or four, I realised that nothing will change in Ireland. The elite and their collaborators will continue to rob from the public and not a damn thing will ever be done about it.

As the chant went out from the demonstrators "Jail the Bankers", all I could think about was "what about the Garda Commissioner?" and "what about the DPP?" both surely complicit in protecting their friends in the cabal and bringing this sorry saga to the verge of evaporating with the Statute Of Limitations.

What about the previous administration all 'sacked' by the public and living on pensions of two or three times the industrial wage? What about these crooks who permitted the theft from the public, then did nothing to prosecute their friends. What about the current administration sitting on their hands waiting for the Statute of Limitations to kick in, again protecting their golf partners and dinner company.

The sad thing is that rather than having 'enemies of the people' swinging from Dublins lamp posts the night this does evaporate, instead the whining public will queue up to protest, then go elsewhere to dine.

I sincerely hope the rational thinking person of Dublin can look his adult child in the eye in years to come and feel no shame as his grandchild emigrates.

"Daddy what did you do during the war?"........"I queued up to lodge a request to jail someone who is in the USA - then felt great".

The Docile Public

Whether it is the serious allegations raised against Michael Lowry or lesser issues with the removal of Ming Flanagans Driver Penalty Point, the Irish public seem to simply chatter for a few days then move on.

Love him or hate him, it would seem there is a lone voice in The Oireachtas standing up to the political establishment.

Ireland and State Funded Pensions

The public do not elect Governments and pay their taxes only to see a wealthy clique enriched by those elected to serve them. Recent Governments in Ireland would appear to have detached themselves mentally from where Government revenue is actually coming from and what their responsibilities to the electorate actually are.


There should be strict limits to the size of pension fund contributions made by State, Semi State and State Bailed Out Companies. Combined with this, there should be strict limits on the maximum size of pension payable by The State, Semi State and State Bailed Out Companies.

All pensions over and above the basic State provided Contributory Old Age Pension should be contributory and across the board legislation needs to be enacted to have a standard PRSA type contribution across all sectors both Public and Private (a mandatory 6% or 7% of gross salary matched by the employer). The State would also need to put in place a system for seamless transfer or continuation of payments when a person changes job. A novel system could be to put the system under State Agency control and have the fund invest in Irish Government Bonds.

As with the Private Sector, there should be no restrictions on the amount of money a person can pay from their Net Salary (after taxes) into a Private Pension Fund or purchase additional property for rental etc – this should be a standard right of any individual.

However The State should not pay a pension of over €100K per year to anyone – index linked to 2012. Anyone wanting more should simply set aside some of their current salary and invest in a private scheme.

Where individuals qualify for multiple State funded pensions (as we see with our political class) the maximum combined total should not exceed €100K per year. It’s a very simple logic, The State should pay no more than €100K per year to any retired person.

Golden Parachutes on retirement from senior Government appointed positions should also be outlawed – this Government approved practice is bordering on misuse of State funds.

Breakup of Eurozone and Anarchy (2)

The Eurozone Unravelling

Greece is facing a life or death political and social crisis as the bankrupt state desperately fights to stay in the single currency. This is calamatous for the ordinary Greek worker who; having his taxes deducted at source; will have no choice but to foot the bill.

Although there are similarities between the Greece, Portugal and Ireland situations, one must draw a distinction between the causes and historic benefits. The Greek and Portuguese Governments have for years been spending far more than they have received in taxes and tax avoidance among the wealthier of the population is rife. It could be argued that the public in both countries has reaped the benefits of better services etc than they might have had, however in Greece the level of general corruption has probably negated any benefits. Both Greece and Portugal have now been requested to agree a plan with creditors to balance their books and start paying down the debts. Ireland on the otherhand is an entirely different situation where the Government was balancing its books until the financial collapse and could have weathered the current storm easily if not 'lumbered with' repaying the bulk of the countries banks bonds and loan books. Until the global financial collapse, Ireland was in fact adhering to fiscal directives better than Germany. The Irish Private Banks (Anglo Irish Bank specifically) were funded by foreign investors (mainly banks and insurance companies) which was used by a small elite 'business' group to fund business opportunities in Ireland and abroad. Regardless of the now infamous Irish Bank Guarantee, Ireland would have been pressured into repaying these loans and bonds in no different a way to Iceland.

However the similarity with Greece is that those in Ireland who have benefitted from the very large business loans and have now defaulted, appear to be untouchable, with few prosecutions as they continue to live the 'high life'. Like the wealthy Greeks, these people appear to have no shame, no sense of community or national spirit/responsibility and would seem content to see the ordinary worker bankrupted for their debts, with unemployemnt and taxes rising exponentially as Governments attempt to fight off the inevidible.


Dole queue in Ireland

In Greece, the Eurozone Medicine will see workers pay packets plummet. Greece’s minimum wage is about €750 a month. Troika officials have said they would like to see it drop to around €500 a month, about the level of Portugal, which has also required foreign bailout money. Owing to the cartels that have historically controlled the distribution of consumer goods, consumer prices in Greece are comparatively high — petrol/gasoline is more than €1.60/L (over $8 a gallon) which is in the 'higher band' of european fuel prices. Creditors argue that cutting labour costs is essential to making the Greek economy more competitive. Both the unions and employers' associations counter that the move will only further depress consumer spending and therefore tax revenue.


In an emotional speech the Greek Prime Minister said: "The choice we face is one of sacrifice or even greater sacrifice – on a scale that cannot be compared. Our country, our homeland, our society has to think and make a definitive, strategic decision. If we see the salvation and future of the country in the euro area, in Europe, we have to do whatever we have to do to get the programme approved." But one has the sense that the politicians (in no different a way to Ireland) will protect their elite at the expense of the ordinary Greek citizen. The most striking difference between Greece and Ireland is that the 'elite' seem to form a much larger group in Greece than in Ireland.

In the wealthy, northern suburbs of Athens just 324 residents checked the box on their tax returns admitting that they owned swimming pools. So tax investigators studied satellite photos of the area — a sprawling collection of expensive villas tucked behind tall gates — and came back with a decidedly different number of 16,974 pools. Another anecdote is the statistic that there are many multiples more Porsche cars in Greece than those declaring incomes of over €50K per year (a recent report pointed to a figure of 6 x). This kind of wholesale lying about assets, and other eye-popping cases that are surfacing in the news media here, points to the staggering breadth of tax dodging that has long been a way of life here. Such evasion has played a significant role in Greece’s debt crisis, and as the country struggles to get its financial house in order, it is (verbally) going after tax cheats as never before. Various studies, including one by the Federation of Greek Industries last year estimated that the government may be losing as much as €25 billion a year to tax evasion — a figure that would have gone a long way to solving its debt problems.



Photo NY Times

The picture painted of Greece in relation to tax evasion is on the face of it far more serious than that of Ireland, however there are similarities between an Elite Ruling Class who see all legislation being for the Great Unwashed and see themselves as being above audit. Salary caps have also been implemented in Ireland, however 'exceptions' have been made for political advisors and expense accounts for politicians and their cronys seem to go largely unchallenged.

The lead up to the French and American Revolutions are good examples what is driving Greek anger. The French revolution being the 'decapitation' of the highly corrupt French Ruling Elite of the time and the American Revolution being precipitated by unjustified taxes imposed/dictated by what was seen as a Foreign Government. To date the Greek protests have been largely against their own political leaders for seemingly accepting unnacceptable taxes imposed from 'Berlin', however to correct the imbalances within Greek society, much of this anger must be turned on their own business and professional elite.

Riot police clash with protesters on the streets of Athens on a daily basis, strikes are weekly events, and five Government Ministers have resigned in protest at the scale of the spending cuts demanded in return for a new €130bn (£108bn) bailout, Evangelos Venizelos, the Greek finance minister and socialist leader, said the country has to choose whether to swallow the Eurozone Medicine of more cuts – or default on its debt and be forced out of the euro (although I'm not so certain expulsion from the Eurozone is possible under the Lisbon Treaty)


Reuters Photo of Athens Riots Feb 10th 2012


Police ringed the Greek parliament building following the failure of eurozone finance ministers to approve the new bailout for Greece. Prime minister Lucas Papademos had offered new austerity measures worth €3.3bn to secure the euro lifeline, but he was told the cash would not be forthcoming until savings of an additional €325m were identified. He was told to get the €3.3bn programme endorsed and come up with a plan for the new cuts – to plug a gap in this year's budget – by Sunday. George Karatzaferis, a Greek coalition leader, spoke of national humiliation and said he would not accept the new cuts, adding that Greece was labouring "under the German boot".


Depiction of Angela Merkel (German Chancellor) in Greek Newspaper Feb 2012

Anyone familiar with contract negotiations in a business environment will have experienced the 'successful bid' experience following very difficult negotiations in which margins are cut to nothing and where the sole objective of the successful negotiations is to maintain market share etc. Some may have experience of that final twist of the knife when believing the contract secured, the customer team returns for the trophy victory, demanding a price reduction which means little to the customer, but pushes the supplier over that line - most suppliers having already counted the 'deal' as secured rarely walk away from this final demand, however it can sour a relationship badly. The Greman/Franco led Eurozone is now guilty of such behaviour and one has to wonder whether this is perhaps a tactic to actually force Greece out of the Eurozone.

Germany and France (those actually dictating Eurozone direction) are not behaving like Arbitrators, but rather are behaving like Adversaries and have pushed for what would seem to be their 'pound of flesh'. This does not bode well for the Eurozone (or EU) longer term, as one of the founding principles of the EU was to eliminate inter-state bullying which caused so many european wars in the past. Clearly Germany and France are destroying many of the bridges built over the past 60-70 years and creating a Yugoslavia situation within Europe, where the smaller states feel dominated by a powerful axis. In the case of Yugoslavia, the axis was Serbia and Montenegro, whereas in Europe it is Germany and France.


Political Cartoons becoming more anti-German Feb 2012

 The scenes of violence in Athens shattered the mood of calm that has characterised the financial markets this year. The French and German stock markets closed down around 1.5%. The anger from the extreme right in Greece was echoed on the left where a resigning socialist minister accused the eurozone of "extortion" in its  policies towards Athens.
In Germany, Angela Merkel was reported to have warned her centre-right MPs of "uncontrollable consequences" for the eurozone should Greece become the first euro nation to declare sovereign default on its soaring debt. German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, told the same MPs, according to reports in Berlin, that Athens' latest pledges over spending cuts fell well short of what was needed.
EU ministers demanded that the three party leaders of the caretaker coalition under Papademos deliver signed pledges on the programme, making them binding and irreversible regardless of who wins an early general election expected in April. "This certainly violates the sovereignty of the country and doesn't allow democratic choices to work," a government minister from a southern eurozone country told journalists. "But it's tough when you need the money." Papademos told the cabinet, which endorsed the loan agreement tonight, the country had no choice – "our priority is to do whatever it takes to approve the new economic programme". Anyone who disagreed would have to leave the government.

Karatzaferis, leader of the extreme right Laos party in the three-party coalition, said he would vote against the austerity package and was willing to quit the coalition in protest. "Greece can't and shouldn't do without the European Union, but it could do without the German boot," he said. "What has particularly bothered me is the humiliation of the country." The other two coalition partners, the Pasok socialists and the conservative New Democracy, have a sweeping parliamentary majority and do not need Karatzaferis's 16 votes. The Pasok deputy labour minister, Yannis Koutsoukos, who resigned in protest on Thursday, accused the "troika" – officials from the European commission, ECB and IMF – of behaving "in an extortionate manner that is completely improper and shameless".





Although ultimately responsible for their own situation, Greece is being subjected to the same type of arm-twisting the Presidents and Prime Ministers of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and others faced from Nazi Germany - "do what we say - or else !!", therefore Greek anger at Germany is understandable.

The aim of the second Greek bailout over two years is to cut the country's debt from 160% of gross domestic product now to 120% by 2020. Ostensibly this is to be achieved by €130bn from the eurozone and the IMF, combined with swingeing spending cuts and tax rises and a write-down of debt by the country's private creditors through a debt swap pact halving the burden from €200bn to €100bn. But the €130bn is no longer viewed as sufficient and Schäuble was said to have told MPs that under Greek pledges the debt level would still be between 128% and 136% of GDP by 2020.

Without the new bailout, Greece will be unable to redeem more than €14bn of debt on 20 March 2012, leaving the country in sovereign default and ushering in an even bigger crisis in the eurozone's distressed periphery


Separately, in a private conversation captured on camera during a meeting in Brussels, Schäuble assured the Portuguese finance minister he would be prepared to adjust the terms of Portugal's €78bn bailout programme once the Greek situation was resolved – remarks viewed as incendiary given the tough line taken with Athens. "If there appears a necessity for an adjustment in the Portuguese programme we would be ready to do that," Schäuble said. Portugal's Vitor Gaspal replied: "That's much appreciated."

Unless Schäuble is referring to any bilateral loans extended by Germany to Potugal, one has to wonder how/why the German Finance Minister believes he speaks for all Eurozone Finance Ministers.

The Irish Developers were merely 'consumables' in a game which is goinge to see the rape of the general public of europe by politicians in the pockets of the banks. The sad thing is that it would seem that many of the public throughout europe can already see this, however the Irish public seem passive and submissive when meeting this challenge.