Whereas Athens has regained the EU’s confidence by way of the financial system, this isn’t the case with the standard of the rule of regulation.
Parliamentary elections can be held in Greece on Sunday, at a time when excessive meals costs and the price of residing are on the high of the minds of Greek voters, in line with latest polls.
For Brussels, the financial scenario appears a far cry from the darkish days of bailout programmes and painful austerity measures.
Now the nation’s financial system is among the many quickest rising within the eurozone. However whoever wins the elections, fiscal self-discipline will stay a key factor.
“Basically, Greece has weathered the final two distinctive crises, the credit score disaster and the vitality disaster, fairly properly, maybe higher than the European common,” Daniel Gros, director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi College in Milan, informed Euronews. “And the federal government has managed to maintain fiscal coverage beneath management and is now reaping the fruits of that self-discipline.”
Whereas Greece has regained the EU’s confidence by way of the financial system, this isn’t the case with the standard of the rule of regulation.
The federal government’s picture was tarnished overseas by the so-called “Greek Watergate,” during which politicians, journalists, and businessmen had been monitored by Greek intelligence companies.
The federal government denies having used spy software program.
However Nino Tsereteli, analysis officer at Democracy Reporting Worldwide in Berlin, shouldn’t be glad.
“The political authorities have basically obstructed the actions of the impartial company, which is meant to confirm, for instance, who’s on the watch checklist. And it takes a number of years for folks to be told after the monitoring has been achieved,” she informed Euronews.
“This results in a extremely disturbing scenario, as a result of the opposition and journalists are those who’re focused. And this significantly impacts the standard of democracy within the nation and the standard of the rule of regulation.
Nonetheless, in line with polls, the scandal is unlikely to have a significant affect on the parliamentary elections.
In accordance with Tsereteli, this can be a symptom of vital voices being suppressed by the media, and nice vigilance is required on the EU degree earlier than the scenario involves an irreversible head.
For the second yr in a row, Greece ranks because the worst EU nation by way of media freedom, in line with Reporters With out Borders.
Read the full article here
