Juncker’s statements numbed the government

"The national sovereignty of Greeks will be largely confined after the acceptance of EU aid". This phrase of Eurogroup president Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday caused an intense "numbness" to government officials. Late at night, members of the government made ​​no secret of their concern about Juncker’s decision to use such a harsh sentence, which could create additional problems for the government.

Government sources said the present government will not stop trying to "build a country that can recover on its own merits and not on loans", and added that the main objective is "to create a modern state without dependencies." The same sources finally stated that Greek dependency started from the period of the New Democracy administration.

The Eurogroup president made it quite clear that the new aid will come with tough requirements in return. The constriction of national sovereignty, certain to be described in detail in the new loan contract, will lead to further unrest in the country and the ruling party. The first loan agreement "passed" without being discussed in parliament, and voices from the intraparty opposition have already noted this.

Vasso Papandreou, Tonia Antoniou and Chryssa Arapoglou had criticized strongly the-then Minister of Finance, Giorgos Papakonstantinou. Current minister and deputy PM Evaggelos Venizelos has made it clear that he wants the new loan agreement to come to parliament and receive affirmative votes by 180 MPs.

Juncker also noted that Greece is in need of help from "foreign experts in order to implement its commitments". The way they would go about it is not clear, but along with the statement about national sovereignty, they create the impression that the Greek government will need to cooperate with foreign consultants; it is still unclear if they will simply advise or enforce policies like the Troika did.  

It should be noted here that when Proto Thema published a story a few weeks ago about the advent of commissioners to our country, the government reacted strongly, dismissing the newspaper’s information.