Productive transformation of Greek economy a nat'l priority, BoG chief says

The effort for the productive transformation of the Greek economy into a new growth model is exclusively Greece's task. The Memorandum contains the last possible changes in that direction, but in no way replaces Greece's major national responsibility, central Bank of Greece (BoG) governor George Provopoulos said on Monday, introducing a Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) study on evaluation of the effects on the Greek economy from the policies financed by the EU budget.

The BoG chief pointed out that the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) and EU funds will truly serve as strong developmental tools if they are incorporated creatively in this wider plan. However, to date, the Community resources have had a positive contribution, but their specific distribution did not avert a reproduction of the warped model that finally led to the present crisis.

In the new conditions, he continued, the use of Community resources should be incorporated in a national strategy, which will be in line with the priorities of the fiscal adjustment and reforms, thus enhancing the necessary transformations that will lead to a new, healthy production model.

Presenting the results of the study, ELIAMEP general director Loukas Tsoukalis said that inflows from the EU from 1988 to the present exceed 110 billion euros, while per capita receipts in Greece have almost always been higher than the average for the EU member states.

Indicatively, he said that in the decade 1990-1999 the proportion of net transfers from the EU budget to Greece were an average 4.2 percent of its GDP, and in 2008 alone exceeded 8.5 billion euros.

However, it arose from the study that these resources were not adequately exploited, he said, but added that despite this it is acknowledged that the contributed positively to the creation of revenues to almost the entirety of the Greek economy, and particularly to the incomes of the agrarian population, especially in the decades of 1980 and 1990.

But during this process 'pathogenies' arose and continue to exist, such as pretextual compensations and violations of Community legislation, while a strategic plan aiming at enhancing the strong points of Greek agriculture was never drawn up, he said.

From 1980 to the present, 17.9 billion euros have been channeled to infrastructures, particularly transports, with mixed results, Tsoukalis said, citing as an example the construction of major road axes, noting excessions of the construction costs and problems in the operation of the institutional framework.

The second part of the study contains the European Commission proposals for the programme period 2014-2020, which include a reduction of the resource transfers to Greece. Given that the cohesion policy will focus less on the developed regions, Greece is earmarked to receive 12-13 billion euros from the Structural Funds against 20.4 billion euros in the 2007=2013 period.

Provopoulos noted, however, that due to the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), there will be a further reduction of the resources in this category, in the new programme period, but added that the negotiation for the 2014-2020 programme period is still ongoing.

SOURCE: ATHENS NEWS AGENCY