Open Letter on the Critical Situation of Greece

Open Letter

to the Heads of State and Government of the European Union who participated in the ‘Small Summit’ with Barak Obama

David Cameron, François Hollande, Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Given your prominent roles as leaders in European politics, we turn to you regarding a matter of utmost urgency: preventing the suffocation of Greece and its democratically elected government under the crushing weight of continuously expanding demands by its negotiating partners.

The disastrous humanitarian situation in Greece has been public knowledge for quite some time now. Added to this predicament are the burdens the Greek population must carry with regard to the accommodation of and care for refugees arriving in the country. In this situation, Greece desperately needs the support of its European neighbours instead of renewed stifling austerity. Time is of the essence: if Greece is to implement any sort of crisis management policy at all, then immediate steps must be taken. At this point, it is by all means your responsibility to prevent the breakdown of democratic political agency in Greece!

In light of the problems described, Greece is in urgent need of additional financial resources. At the same time, an abandonment of the crisis strategy imposed on Greece is imperative. Like the first two programmes, the third bailout package represents the kind of drastic treatment that will benefit neither Greece nor its creditors. One particularly damaging element of the third bailout package are the excessive demands for short-term and mid-term budgetary targets, designed to achieve a primary surplus of 3.5 percent by 2018. To demand even more far-reaching austerity measures at this very point in time, following years of deprivation and economic decline, is not only unrealistic and economically senseless, but above all simply cannot be reasonably expected of the Greek people any longer.

We therefore urge you to oblige the relevant EU institutions and those responsible for future negotiations to put the following points into practice:

  • that all credit instalments agreed on with Greece be paid out as scheduled (and without the introduction of new demands for austerity measures) in order for Greece to meet repayment requirements.
  • that Greece receive additional financial assistance in order to cope with the humanitarian crisis of its own population and the refugees coming to Greece, and
  • that a restructuring of Greece’s debt to the extent that the burden of debt service becomes sustainable (long-term debt titles with low interest rates) be at least initiated before the end of 2016. Moreover, with view to the underlying assessment of Greece’s capacity for debt service, excessive targets concerning short- and mid-term budgets must be significantly lowered.
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Yours sincerely

 

Nicola Acocella, Roma, Italia, economist

Elmar Altvater, Berlin, Germany, political economist, member of the scientific council of ATTAC-Germany

Antoine Artous, Paris, France, political scientist

Étienne Balibar, Paris, France, philosopher

Thomas Barth, Ilmmünster/München, Germany, sociologist

Rudolph Bauer, Bremen, Germany, sociologist

Seyla Benhabib, Yale, USA, philosopher, political scientist

Stefan Bestmann, Berlin, Germany, social researcher

Helmut Born, Düsseldorf, Germany, leading trade unionist
Jacques Bidet, Paris, France, philosopher

Hans-Jürgen Bieling, Tübingen, Germany, political scientist

Gretchen Binus, Berlin, Germany, economist

Joachim Bischoff, Hamburg, Germany, sociologist and journalist

Heinz – J. Bontrup, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, economist

Andreas.Botsch, Berlin, Germany, economist

Moses Boudourides, Patras, Greece, economist

Miriam Boyer, Berlin, Germany, sociologist

Heiner Braun, Berlin, Germany, Co-President of the International Peace Bureau (IPB)

Peter Brandt, Berlin, Germany, legal theorist

Michael Brie, Schöneiche, Germany, philosopher

Andrea Brock, Hürth, Germany, international relationsSusan Buck-Morss, New York, NY, USA, philosopher, intellectual historian

Judith Butler, Berkely, Calif., USA, philosopher

Christoph Butterwegge, Köln, Germany, political scientist

Ricardo Cabral, Funchal, Portugal, economist, vice-rector of the University of Madeira

Claude Calame, Paris, France, social anthropologist

Mario Candeias, Berlin, Germany, political scientist

Castellina Luciana, Ex-MEP, Roma, Italy, journalist

Patrice Cohen-Séat, Paris, France, lawyer, honorary president of Espaces-Marx

Laurence Cox, Dublin, Ireland, sociologist

Alexis Cukier, Strasbourg, France, philosopher

Rolf Czeskleba-Dupont, Hvalsø, Denmark, geographer

Jobst Dahle, Berlin, Germany, former teacher

Bo G. H. Dahlqvist, Waterloo, Belgium, pensioner

Georgios Daremas, Athens, Greece, member of the Executive Committee of Attac-Hellas

Nick Dearden, London, Great Britain, campaigner, director of a democratic justice organisation

Judith Dellheim, Berlin, Germany, political economist

Alex Demirovic, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, sociologist

Andreas Diers, Bremen, Germany, historian

Dagmar Dörper, Freinsheim, Gernany, member of ATTAC Mannheim

Stéphane Douailler, Paris, France, philosopher

Sebastian Dullien, Berlin, Germany, economist

Gary Dymski, Leeds, Great Britain, economist

Rolf Eckart, München, Germany, social movement activist

Peter Eigen, Berlin, Germany, lawyer

Roland Erne, Dublin, Ireland, economist

Trevor Evans, Berlin, Germany, economist

Michael Ewert, München, Germany, historian

Jean Louis Fabiani, Budapest, Hungary, sociologist / social anthropologist

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Karl Fischbacher, Wien, Austria, Labournet-Austria

Nancy Fraser, New York, NY, USA, critical theorist

Hans-Peter Gase, München, Germany, member of “Sozialforum München”

Jacques Généreux, Paris, France, economist

Sven Giegold, MdEP, Düsseldorf, Germany

Giuliana Giorgi, Berlin, Germany

Werner Goldschmidt, Hamburg, Germany, philosopher of law and legal theorist

John Grahl, London, Great Britain, economist

Dorothea Härlin, Berlin, Germany, member of „Berliner Wassertisch“

Peter Herrmann, Roma, Italy, social scientist

Rudolf Hickel, Bremen, Germany, economist

Willi Hoffmeister, Dortmund, Germany, peace movement activist

Gustav Horn, Düsseldorf, Germany, economist

Katja Kipping, MdB, Dresden, Germany, party president

Joachim Klein, Offenbach, Germany, political theorist and philosopher

Jürgen Klute, Herne, Ex-MEP, Germany

Claus-Dieter König, Brussel/Bruxelles, Belgium, director of the Brussels office of a foundation

Tom T. Kristensen, København, Denmark, modern Greek studies

Sudhir Kumar, Chennai, India, architect

Peter Kuscher, Berlin, Germany, philosopher and political scientist

Jeremy Leaman, Loughborough, Great Britain, European Political Economy

Steffen Lehndorff, Duisburg, Germany, social researcher

Jürgen Leibiger, Radebeul, Germany, economist

Brian Leslie, Tunbridge Wells, Great Britain, economist

Stephan Lindner, Berlin, Germany, ATTAC activist

Jakic Ljubomir, Brussel/Bruxelles, Belgium, journalist

Francisco Louçã, Lisboa, Portugal, economist

Camille Louis, Paris, France, philosopher and dramaturgist

José Ramón Mariño Gonzalez, Bilbao, Basque Country, economist

Alberto Martínez Sánchez, Valencia, Spain, vice president of ATTAC in the Valencia Region

Angie Mathieu, Paris, France, student/squatter

Christiane Mende, Berlin, Germany, historianliebe

Sandro Mezzadra, Bologna, Italy, political theorist

Hans Misselwitz, Berlin, Germany, biologist

Margret Moenig-Raane, Berlin, Germany, former services trade union leader

Francine Mestrum, Brussels, Belgium, member of Global Social Justice

Frieder Müller, Buggingen, Germany, trade unionist

Siegfried Müller-Maige, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, economist, member of ATTAC

Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Oxford, Great Britain, international relations

Daniel Nitsch, Berlin, Germany, political scientist

Claus Offe, Berlin, Germany, political scientist

Norman Paech, Hamburg, Germany, legal theorist

Ricardo Paes Mamede, Lisbon, Portugal, economist

Alexis Passadakis, Frankfurt a.M., Germany, member of ATTAC

Dagmar Paternoga, Bonn, Germany, Council Member of ATTAC Germany

Lisa Paus, MdB, Berlin, Germany

Helmut Penschinski, Wuppertal, Germany, former teacher, ATTAC activist

Mario Pianta, Urbino, Italy, political economist

José Reis, Coimbra, Portugal, economist

Jörg Reitzig, Ludwigshafen, Germany, social scientist

Jorge Riechmann, Madrid, Spain, philosopher, political scientist and poet

Bruce Robbins, New York, NY, USA, English and Comparative Literature

Michelle Riot-Sarcey, Paris, France, historian

Jan Rolletschek, Berlin, Germany, cultural and political theorist

Thomas Sablowski, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, political scientist

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Pierre Salama, Paris, France, Latin-American studies

Thomas Sauer, Jena, Germany, economist

Patrick Saurin, Paris, France, Spokesperson for the French Union Sud Solidaires BPCE

Hans Walter Schmitt, Kassel, Germany, social movement activist

Dieter Scholz, Berlin, Germany, former trade union leader

Mechthild Schrooten, Bremen, Germany, economist

Peter Schubert, Dresden, Germany, engineer

Gesine Schwan, Berlin, Germany, political scientist

Ingo Schulze, Berlin, Germany, writer

Ursel Schumm-Garling, Berlin, Germany, sociologist

Lynne Segal, London, Great Britain, psycho-social studies

Jai Sen, New Delhi, India, Director of CACIM – India Institute for Critical Action: Centre in Movement

Francis Sitel, Paris, France, political analyst, co-director of “contretemps”

Viriato Soromenho-Marques, Lisbon, Portugal, philosopher

Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Coimbra, Portugal, social scientist

Barbara Spinelli, MdEP, Rom, Italy

Dieter Spöri, Berlin, Germany, former minister of economy

Elsa Stamatopoulos, New York, NY, USA, legal theorist, anthropologist

Dieter Stork, Rüsselsheim, Germany, former teacher

Aleksander Sulejewicz, Warsaw, Poland, economist

Roland Süß, Birkenau, Germany, member of ATTAC Germany

Rolf Sukowski, Berlin, Germany, chair of OWUS e.V.

Mario Tiberi, Rome, Italy, economist

Jan Toporowski, London, Great Britain, economist

Axel Troost, MdB, Leipzig, Germany, economist

Hans-Jürgen Urban, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, Board of the Metalworkers’ Union

Lode Vanoost, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium, former Deputy Speaker of the Belgian House of Representatives

Marie-Dominique Vernhes, Hamburg, Germany, social activist

Guido Viale, Milan, Italy, economist

Barbara Volhard, Freiburg, Germany, member of ATTAC Freiburg

Antje Vollmer, ex-MdB, Berlin, Germany, former vice president of the German Bundestag

Peter Wahl, Berlin, Germany, president of WEED – World economy, ecology and development

Immanuel Wallerstein, New Haven, Conecticut, USA, social scientist and social historian

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Wiesbaden, Germany, former federal minister for economic co-operation

Angela Wigger, Nijmegen, Netherlands, international political economist

Stefan Wilker, Osnabrück, Germany, in the name of ATTAC Regional group Osnabrück

Ulrich Wilken, MdL, Frankfurt a. M., Germany, vice president of the regional parliament of the state of Hessen

Markus Wissen, Berlin, Germany, social scientist

Frieder Otto Wolf, Ex-MEP, Berlin, Germany, philosopher

Harald Wolf, MdA, Berlin, Germany

Andrea Ypsilanti, MdL, Frankfurt a. M., Germany

Gabi Zimmer, MEP, Werder, Germany, group president