Europe and Greece: who is fooling who?

The European leaders have apparently been taken by surprise by the radical left winning the elections in Greece. Even though they were threatening various sanctions against the country prior to the elections, even going as far as saying that Germany would want Greece to exit the Eurozone, some of the European officials seem to mellow their discourse.

Let's not forget that over the last few years, Greece hasn't exactly honored its commitments assumed through the international bailout agreements, as it has been pardoned, for the most part, rather than sanctioned.

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, yesterday said that he would review "in detail" the list of wishes of the new Government in Athens, led by Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the radical left Syriza - the party that won the Parliamentary elections held on Sunday in Greece.

Even though he did remind that there are rules that Greece must comply with, the statements of the EU leader come after, no earlier than December 2014, Juncker was saying that "he prefers known faces, not extremist forces" and that he would like the country to be "governed by people that watch over Greece's citizens, which would also understand the need for the European process".

Now, Juncker is saying: "It is a normal thing and in line with the norms for the European executive to work closely with every government, regardless of who they are. It is what we are going to do with Greece as well. We will see what the new Greek government wants and we will talk to it, just like we talk to every government (...) We will review in detail their wishlist".

The leader of the European Commission has made a mention, in his statements, of a potential change in the terms of the Greek bailout. The Greek government has accessed a loan of 240 billion Euros from the European Commission, the European Central Bank (BCE) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), amid the financial crisis of 2010, to avoid going into default.

When asked by journalists about a potential cut of a possible new cut of the Greek debt, Juncker replied that it wasn't "an urgent matter" and he reminded that there are already "rules mutually agreed with the Greek authorities".

The leader of the EU made these statements after the Monetary and Economic Affairs European commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, had announced in the beginning of the month that the issue of Greek debt was not on the agenda of the EU.

More staunch, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of European finance ministers, yesterday said that the Eurogrup "would not yield to the claims of the new Greek prime-minister Alexis Tsipras" and it would not renegotiate Greece's public debt.

"Being a member of the Eurozone means complying with the already existing agreements", said Dijsselbloem.

The notion of restructuring Greece's debt is being rejected first of all by Germany.

Syriza and the Independent Greeks nationalist party have agreed yesterday to govern together. Greece needs a governing coalition because Syriza got 149 seats out of the 300 in the Parliament, lacking only two seats to form an absolute majority.

Panos Kammenos, president of the small political party Independent Greeks, said: "We will grant a vote of confidence to new prime-minister Alexis Tsipras".

The independent Greeks have a heavy anti-austerity rhetoric, just like Syriza.

Tsipras, who yesterday took his wow as prime-minister, promised the end of austerity and wants the restructuring of Greece's debts, mostly to Germany and Greece. Greece's debt exceeds 175% of the GDP, reaching 312 billion Euros.

We remind that in 2011, Greek prime-minister at the time, Giorgios Papandreou, was forced to drop the idea of organizing a referendum on the issue of the country's bailout plan. The idea of the referendum drew harsh criticism from the EU leaders, who even threatened to eliminate Greece from the EU.

One year later, Alexis Tsipras was saying that it is not German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that has the ability to decide on the organization of a referendum in Greece.

"Grece is a sovereign country (...). It is not Mrs. Merkel that decides if we hold a referendum or not. There is nothing to negotiate in the memorandum because we do not negotiate with hell. What is going to be negotiated again is not the memorandum, but the public debt", Tsipras said, three years ago.

• BCE: "Greece's fiscal indebtedness, below the European average"

Greece's indebtedness level, even though it has increased over the last years, is still below the European average, according to a letter of ECB president, Mario Draghi, to a Greek MP. The document has been published on the website of the institution.

"The fiscal burden in Greece (including the real contributions to social security) was 34.2% of the GDP in 2013, far below the Eurozone and European average, despite some hikes in the last few years", said Draghi in his letter to Greek MP Kostas Chrysogonos, Syriza member.

• Benoit Coeure: "The ECB will not participate in any reduction of Greece's debt"

Benoit Coeure, member on the Executive Board of the ECB, yesterday warned that the bank would not take part in any reduction of Greece's debt.

"It is not the role of the ECB to decide whether Greece needs a cut of its debt, but it is absolutely certain that we cannot agree to a cut of the debt that includes the Greek bonds that the ECB holds", Coeure said, who mentioned that the new Government in Athens will have to honor Greece's debt commitments. Still, the ECB official did not rule out talks about a possible extension of the loan maturities.

Coeure stressed that most of the Greek debt is owed to Eurozone countries, France and Germany, that have to recoup approximately 100 billion from Greece.

• FMI: "Greece can not ask for a special treatment for its debt"

Greece must comply with the regulations of the Eurozone and it may not ask for a special treatment for its debt, after the victory of the radical left in the elections, said the CEO of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, quoted by French publication Le Monde.

"There are internal regulations of the Eurozone that must be complied with. We can not set up special categories for a specific country", said Lagarde, who added that Greece still has to adopt comprehensive structural reforms, such as tax collection and reducing the number of outstanding judicial cases.

"It is not a matter of austerity measures, there are profound reforms that are left to do", the IMF official said.

Last week, Christine Lagarde warned Greece that there would be consequences in the event of the restructuring of its debt after the legislative elections.