| (Disclaimer: German) "Austerity" is a media invention. Or what does "austerity" mean for you? The word is probably the most used word in the crisis, which is never explained by facts. What are those "punitive austerity measures"? This is not a rhetoric question, I'd like to know. Germany (and others, Netherlands, Finland etc.) want taxes to be paid (could end the crisis real quick) and structural reforms to prevent bottomless pits and enable growth in the future. Greece was not able to take 15 billions EUR over the last years of infrastructure money from the European Union because of a local administration that just does not work and is extremely corrupt. The European Union was supporting Greece growth with money for innovation projects, infrastructure money etc. over the last decade, but Greece was not able to run the necessary projects. I was managing European IT projects 10 years ago. Poland did show how to take EU money and prosper. They were on EVERY IT project I was part of, payed every company and university that took EU money additional money, helped get projects into Poland etc. They did everything right, now - and it was of course not only EU money but a very strong spirit and enthusiasm in Poland - they prosper from what they did since they joined the EU (and before). The crisis is kind of sad for Greece, because their productivity grew strongly in the last 10 years (contrary to Spain or Italy) and the crisis is often attributed to "lazy" Greeks. |
(The structural enhancement fonds for Greece was 20 billion EUR from 2007 to 2013, Greece was not able to take 15 billions from the fonds up to 2012)
For growth in Europe: The next structural EU fond for getting countries with lower living standards to EU level will run from 2014 to 2020 and contain 466 billion $.
I guess it's easier for people to run with the "austerity" story, as a story with victims and villains sells more magazines and blog posts. But it's sad that none of the facts get written about. And it's even sadder that this spills over to HN.