Galery

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

Four years after the outbreak of the economic crisis, Greece has finally made ​​the first attempts to implement structural reforms towards economic recovery. Recently someone has jokingly said that the reforms in the country are like sex between teenagers – there is much talk about it, but nobody knows if it actually exists. The situation could not be different since all governments over the past few decades have been talking about reforms, but none of them has been able to implement them, due to its failure to convince the public that the reforms will improve the economy and consequently the lives of citizens.

Therefore, for years, there have been just single voices in support of the reforms. The caravan, however, was moving without paying any attention to them until the bubble of false prosperity burst and Greece collapsed with a bang. Meanwhile, however, the few attempts for minimal structural changes were destroyed, before they started, by the trade unions of the affected corporate interests. "Reform" was just a "dirty" word that threatened the "fair" interests of certain professional groups, carefully protected by government protectionism.

Closed professions, guaranteed profits and restrictions on the activities of other professional groups are just some of the preferences that benefit certain circles even today. Obviously, the money involved is a lot since their reactions to the draft of the Ministry of Development, which aims to completely liberalise the profession of taxi drivers, remove the flat rate of books and allow the sale of medicines that do not require a prescription elsewhere in addition to pharmacies, has sparked violent reactions. The measures were proposed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as recommendations for the recovery of the Greek economy.

"The issue of milk can be discussed as well as the price of books but the sale of medicines for which a recipe is not required cannot. This situation is totally unacceptable and must be changed," economist Aristos Doksiadis wrote on his Facebook account and added, "Nevertheless, having thoroughly explored and considered these things I believe that the proposals of the Organization for Development regarding milk and books will be positive not only for consumers but also for producers and publishers. However, the opinions of the opposers have to be considered too because they have reasonable arguments."

Greek pharmacies are actually one of the most representative examples of ostensibly private companies the extremely high profits of which are almost entirely due to state protectionism. At the first attempt to liberalise their profession they vehemently protested against the removal of their profit of over 30% that is guaranteed by the government. Significantly, two years ago, baby milk powder was sold only in pharmacies. Despite their resistance, it can now be purchased in supermarkets and its price is at least 15% lower. In protest against the full liberalisation of the profession, pharmacists closed their pharmacies at 2:30 pm on Wednesday for an unlimited period of time, calling their action a strike, although it is actually a lockout since they closed their own businesses without being employees in them.

Which milk will be considered totally fresh and, respectively, will have a higher price is the biggest concern of dairy producers who are also protesting against the bill. They are strongly opposed to the extension of the period within which milk will be considered fresh and it seems that their pressure will bring changes to the legal text. According to the information available to date, the Ministries of Finance and Development have accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture to approve two types of milk as follows:

1. Milk of the day, which will be collected and pasteurized in Greece, these processes will be carried out within 24 hours and milk will have a shelf life of 5 days. It is worth noting that the original proposal of the producers was for a shelf life of two days but it was rejected as scientifically and legally untenable.
2. Low pasteurized milk, which will have a shelf life of 7 days due to the specific climatic conditions in Greece, especially in the summer.

According to sources, the representatives of the supervisory Troika have accepted the arrangement between the Greek ministries but the decision has not been officially announced.

GRReporter presented to its readers the arguments of the Greek publishers against the removal of the flat rate of books. Publishers and prominent representatives of Greek literary life held a number of meetings and discussions in order to attract to their side as many deputies as possible.

The vote on the controversial bill will take place on Sunday. It is not at all certain that it will be adopted, mainly due to the resistance on the part of government deputies whose constituencies are located in rural areas. It is expected that a protest rally outside the parliament building will take place during the vote too.

"Numbers ... I hear that cow's milk producers number 3,500, pharmacists 14,000, taxi owners 25,000. These people are about to overthrow the government just with a "sneeze". On the other hand, the number of unemployed is 1.5 million. The number of people who are unable to pay their taxes is 2.5 million. Those who are uninsured due to their inability to pay their contributions to former freelancers number 400,000. No one cares about all those people. We can see just some "crocodile tears". Clearly, there is fear. Fear of large numbers," businessman and member of the liberal Drassi party Aristotelis Aivaliotis concludes on Facebook.