PASOK MEP and member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgets, Nikolas Farantouris, commented from Brussels on the European Commission’s report on Greece, which was published yesterday.
This is no cause for celebration
“The Commission’s report is NOT cause for celebration,” notes the Greek MEP. As he emphasizes, even the Commission—which is generally supportive of the government—identifies five major challenges, distortions, and imbalances for Greece in its report, to which PASOK has ready answers:
- First front: fiscal issues and the economy.
- Second, the need for state reform.
- Third, the need to simplify bureaucracy and the business environment.
- Fourth, distortions in the energy market and energy costs.
- Fifth, major social issues—employment, education, health, and housing.
“In all five of these areas, it identifies gaps and inequalities, such as:
- Delays in the administration of justice.
- Bureaucratic distortions in public administration.
- Absence of spatial planning.
- High energy prices, distortions, and energy poverty.
- Low-quality and low-paying jobs.
- Low standards of public health and education. For example, a lack of healthcare coverage in rural areas and on the islands. Or the fact that 70% of children are not enrolled in daycare.
- High rents and a housing shortage,” notes Nikolas Farantouris.
PASOK’s program
As the PASOK MEP and professor at the University of Piraeus emphasizes in his statements, “the PASOK program responds directly and specifically to all of these. It proposes a comprehensive reform of the state through the ‘Anastasis Peponis’ plan, strengthening the National Health System through eight targeted interventions. It includes twelve proposals for education, social housing, and measures to increase employment among women and young people.
At the same time, it offers solutions for cheaper electricity, for non-performing loans, and for the acceleration and independence of the judiciary.”
And he concludes:
“PASOK does not rely on generalities. It has ready, costed solutions to the problems raised even by the European Commission itself and is ready to implement them through its government program.”