| Abstract: |
The nationwide violent riots by youths and the general strike in December 2008
in Greece happened in a country, which according to the financial expenses
paid by Brussels should be a real showcase of the European model. A quick
glance at the statistics of the net recipient countries of the EU budget
teaches us that not the poor new member states in the east of the continent,
but Greece is one of the prime recipients all financial transfers from
Brussels over the last decades. From 2003 to 2006 paid Brussels paid net to
Greece 16.5 billion Euros (net), and Greece should be a real model of social
coherence, and Lisbon-strategy progress towards a dynamic, knowledge-based
society, etc. The apocalyptic pictures of the unrests in this key country in
the EU are all the more alarming, because Greece is a member of the Union
already since 1981. Greece in January 1981 became the tenth State of the
European Community. On 6 November 1992, Greece became a member of Schengen,
and from 1.1.2001, Greece is also a member of the European Monetary Union. In
many respects, Greece was an EU model pupil. Its Eurobarometer consent for the
European Constitution was 78% - the highest among all member states. The
Accession Treaty with the ten new EU member states on 16 April 2003 was signed
in Athens as the birthplace of democracy. The devastating forest fires of 2007
heralded the need for a rethinking of the "Greek model". More than 190 fires
were reported and more than 70 fatalities were counted. The far-reaching
consequences of this major fire disaster for the climate of the region are
still unclear. Large stretches of land in the west and southwest look like
volcano - or lunar landscapes. Many of these fires had their origins in
negligence or even criminal arson for the benefit of land speculation. With
the current collapse of the Greek model also a neo-liberal success story comes
to end. The neo-liberal government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis has
been in office since September 2007. Focus of the Karamanlis government is the
restructuring of social security, a balanced budget, combating unemployment,
the reform of education, including through licensing of private universities,
and health care reform along neo-liberal policy prescriptions. The key points
of government activity were • deregulation and cutting red tape •
privatization projects • selling shares in the state's largest telephone
company on the stock market The current experience of Greece has a disturbing
lesson for the further convergence and integration process of the neighbouring
states. Even more alarming than the standstill of the convergence process are
unmistakable signs that this EU core member state is confronted with
corruption out of control. According to Transparency International Greece only
holds rank 57 in global corruption control, and the worst EU 27 Country
Bulgaria is even ranked 72nd. Numerous international studies, surveyed in the
article, show that Greece is far more controlled by the shadow economy and the
underground economy (= organized crime) than Italy. Our analysis with
aggregate data from Eurostat provides further information about the full
extent of the current socio-political disaster confronting Greece. On the one
hand youth unemployment is a sad record in Europe: 22.9% of young people in
the country were without work even before the onset of the current economic
crisis, and this value will explode in 2009. The target group accuracy of the
social system is one of the worst in Europe. In a regional perspective, Athens
is an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty. In: East Macedonia, Thraki
Sterea Ellada Voreio Aigaio Ipeiros Makedonia Dytiki youth unemployment was
over 30%. Also our other indicators • age-and gender-specific and regional
employment rates • age-and gender-specific and regional employment rates •
Proportion of adult population with only lower education • Research and
development expenditure at the regional level • Regional Purchasing Power •
Regional Productivity • Regional Lisbon indicator • Regional economic growth
show that Greece, after receiving all these funds from the Brussels structural
convergence programmes is having a very deficient regional development. We
also show on the basis of our multivariate re-analysis of the data of 2007
UNICEF child poverty study that the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark had the
best performance in Europe in eliminating child poverty. Our closer look at
the 40 sub-components of the UNICEF study shows the deep crisis, which Greek
youth is facing today. Particularly in the area of the acquisition of
cognitive skills, Greece is very poorly placed. Our analysis thus shows that
the crisis of the Greek social system unfortunately, has a deeper, even
European dimension - the crisis of a heavily subsidized EU member country that
has dismally failed. |