Reply #11: Greece has been part of the EU for a long time. [View All]

[liberation]

Greece has always had systemic corruption in their government. I don't know if you are trying to claim that the EU somehow encouraged Greece to "cook the books" but if that is the case, that is an extremely dishonest claim.


Greece was passing tax breaks to capture business, while at the same time expecting EU common funds to cover up for the missed revenue. In other words, they tried to pull a fast one on the EU and got caught, big time. Spain and Ireland's situations are a tad different from Greece's. Ireland is addressing some of their debt issues, and Spain is a far larger economy than Greece so if it were to fall it would drag down the EU big time. The current government in Spain is way too incompetent and are making matters worse though. Nothing like 1848 is going to come to pass, first off I don't think you have a proper understanding of the context and meaning of the revolutions of 1848 in Europe. But what this is going to be is a clear fire test of the EU policies and wether or not cohesion is going to be achieved. And I think it will be, most citizens in Greece and Spain/Ireland are aware the majority of economic policy problem reside with the mismanagement of their local governments and are more willing to listen to the EU in economic matters at this point, than their own governments.

Also this is a power play from the Germany et al to put Greece on notice that the EU is not going to tolerate EU states going rogue and aligning themselves with the USA in matters which contradict common European interests, while at the same time expecting the EU to pay up their bills. And I can't say I blame the EU for taking such a stand.