To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Obama, Tell Europe: Stop Killing Greek Democracy
Just Foreign Policy
The European Central Bank has caused tens of billions of euros to leave Greece since the Greek election in January, by cutting off the ECB’s most important line of credit to the government and by placing unnecessary restrictions on the ability of Greek banks to lend to the new government. President Obama should use his substantial influence with European authorities to press for the ECB to immediately reverse these decisions, allowing the Greek government and banks to borrow and lend as they did before the January election in Greece.
Why is this important?
The Syriza party won Greek parliamentary elections on January 25 on an anti-austerity program [1], after 6 years of depression [2] that were prolonged and exacerbated by Eurozone authorities (including the European Central Bank, European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund [IMF]). On February 4 -- just 10 days after the Syriza government was elected -- the ECB cut off the main source of financing for Greek banks [3]. There was no reason to do this other than bullying; it was more than three weeks before the deadline for the decision. This and other threats and statements by the ECB have driven tens of billions of dollars from the Greek banking system. The ECB has also refused to lift a cap on the amount that Greek banks can lend to the government, an action that it did not take against the previous government.
The ECB’s actions have already contributed to serious damage to Greece’s nascent economic recovery: the Greek economy was projected to grow by 2.9 percent this year, but partly as a result of this instability stoked by the ECB, this forecast has been cut in half.
On April 1 the Greek government put forward a detailed and credible reform plan [4] to increase revenues, so as to ensure that it can make its debt payments. The Greek government has negotiated in good faith; the ECB should not be pushing the Greek government to the brink of default, and undermining the economy, in order to gain advantage in these negotiations. The ECB should immediately lift the cap on Greek bank lending to the government, and the restore the government’s ability to borrow from the Central Bank that the prior government had before the elections.
Urge President Obama to press European authorities to end their destabilization of the Greek economy to undermine democracy by signing our petition.
References:
1. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/destroying-the-greek-economy-in-order-to-save-it.html
2. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-greek-economy-which-way-forward
3. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/greece-ecb-kicks-syriza-in-the-face-syriza-turns-the-other-cheek
4. http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/55b27a7e-d87c-11e4-ba53-00144feab7de.pdf
The ECB’s actions have already contributed to serious damage to Greece’s nascent economic recovery: the Greek economy was projected to grow by 2.9 percent this year, but partly as a result of this instability stoked by the ECB, this forecast has been cut in half.
On April 1 the Greek government put forward a detailed and credible reform plan [4] to increase revenues, so as to ensure that it can make its debt payments. The Greek government has negotiated in good faith; the ECB should not be pushing the Greek government to the brink of default, and undermining the economy, in order to gain advantage in these negotiations. The ECB should immediately lift the cap on Greek bank lending to the government, and the restore the government’s ability to borrow from the Central Bank that the prior government had before the elections.
Urge President Obama to press European authorities to end their destabilization of the Greek economy to undermine democracy by signing our petition.
References:
1. http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/destroying-the-greek-economy-in-order-to-save-it.html
2. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-greek-economy-which-way-forward
3. http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/greece-ecb-kicks-syriza-in-the-face-syriza-turns-the-other-cheek
4. http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/55b27a7e-d87c-11e4-ba53-00144feab7de.pdf