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Victoria Mindova

The President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy who pays a visit to Athens this week said that Greece has been in the program for ten months and the focus should remain on the implementation of the fiscal consolidation and the structural reforms. There is a lot of work to be done and years of constant efforts lie ahead. He addressed a speech on "Greece and Europe: Building the future in difficult times" at the invitation of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy.

The European leader was adamant that foreign debt restructuring of any country in the Euro zone is inconceivable and even rejected the idea of discussing the topic. He added that in his opinion the negative impact of such a move would be much more serious than the positive, so that the Greek foreign debt reforming is not to be discussed. 

Like a strict but a fair father, Rompuy addressed present and former political leaders, bankers, economists and ordinary visitors and explained that Europe understands the difficulties that the country is experiencing but there is no other way for the recovery of the economic stability in the union. He said that his message to the Greek people today is simple and sincere - the reforms that are introduced by this government are necessary and they will make Greece more competitive, more modern, and better functioning, while at the same time new jobs will be opened.

Rompuy acknowledged that these reforms should be implemented in much shorter terms than several years ago. The financial markets are impatient. They were abnormally calm in the first ten years since the establishment of the monetary union, even relaxed, but things have changed after the financial crisis in 2008.

The President said emphatically that he does not accept the definition of peripheral countries in Europe, because all countries equally have to face their current economic problems. However, he stressed that the countries of Europe support Greece and will help it as they have agreed. The European leader stressed that there is tremendous political will to help countries in trouble. Greece only has to fulfill its part of the deal and to implement the economic rescue plan correctly and in the expected terms.

Herman van Rompuy was clear that Europe can not be blamed for the consequences of these reforms. The President of the European Council stressed that the countries of the Union not only supported Greece financially, but have extended the payment period. This will allow the country to carry out the necessary changes and they will enable healthy repayment of loans. However, he did not miss to note that there is no room for hesitation and quick actions are necessary. You have to do the work yourselves. We can only help you as partners but we can not make the changes for you.

In conclusion, Herman Van Rompuy said that giving financial aid to Greece was not an easy political decision for the member states, but has been achieved successfully. Therefore, the countries that have already gone through very severe financial constraints and structural changes will not accept a repetition of old mistakes. Thus, the Greek politicians will have to unite around the idea of ​​economic recovery and forget the political price that they could be forced to pay. "Finally, believe me, I speak from personal experience, only the final result is important," said the European.