Commitments must be met, but are not inflexible, EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said during his whirlwind visit to Athens on Tuesday, in reference to the political “hot potato” entailed with another round of austerity measures that the current government has agreed to impose in 2019.
He also told reporters, following his meeting with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, that agreed-to fiscal targets must be met, while adding that the Commission will continue discussing the matter with Greece as a sovereign state, one that has returned to normalcy.
Asked about an ambitious annual 2.2-percent primary budget surplus target (as a percentage of GDP) that the Tsipras government has committed the country to achieve until far-off 2060, as well as the prospect of 700 to 750 million euros in tax breaks that the government promised for 2019 (an election year), the EU Commissioner said Greece has displayed a remarkable ability to produce high surpluses. He qualified the statement by adding that it was now necessary to implement a fiscal policy without austerity, as the latter would burden the course of the economy.
Moreover, he again emphasized that post-bailout supervision of the country by its institutional creditors is not a new memorandum, nor will any new austerity measure be necessary.
