Athens’ neighbours anxious about aftermath

"The shoring-up of Greece is a big relief” for the Balkans, observes Die Presse, now that the eurozone countries have green-lighted the plan to bail out Greece’s public finances. The reason is that Greece controls a large share of their financial markets, explains the Viennese daily: Greek banks own 30% of the banks in Bulgaria and half the financial sector in Albania. For a long time, as a matter of fact, Greece served as the role model and growth driver for the Balkans. The Greeks have invested several billion euros in various countries in the region: 17,000 people in Bulgaria work for Greek companies, and over 100,000 jobs in Bulgaria depend on Greek investments. Bulgarian exports are likewise in jeopardy, seeing as Greece is the fourth-biggest buyer of Bulgarian products.

Moreover, adds Die Presse, “the Greek crisis is liable to take a heavy toll on seasonal workers”, whose numbers are estimated at 150,000 from Bulgaria and 650,000 from Albania. "Whole families depend on the wages of those waiters, cleaning ladies and harvest helpers who come over from the Balkans to work in Greece,” worries the Austrian newspaper.

Bulgaria’s supposed virtue tarnished

"Will the Greek crisis put up new barriers preventing certain countries from joining the eurozone? Are Central European states that have behaved responsibly and that meet the criteria for accession to the euro going to be rejected because of Greece? The Greeks would then be rescued, in other words rewarded for their irresponsibility, whilst the Estonians and Bulgarians would be punished – although they were responsible?" asks the Romanian weekly Dilema Veche, which predicts that the collateral damage caused by the Greek crisis might include the postponement of Estonian, Bulgarian – and even Romanian – accession to the single currency, despite their relatively virtuous conduct.

But Bulgaria’s supposed virtue has now been tarnished by recent revelations about the country’s deficit, reports euobserver.com. The Bulgarian government has announced the discovery of "hidden contracts and riders” inherited from the previous executive, which bumped up the national debt for 2009 from an estimated 1.9% to 3.7% of GDP, i.e. above the 3% ceiling on existing and would-be eurozone members. As a result, Bulgaria, which had been shortlisted among the hopefuls for joining the single currency, now finds itself back in limbo. However, "on 11 April," reports the pan-European site based in Brussels, “Bulgarian finance minister Simeon Djankov said the revelations would delay rather than end the country's eurozone ambitions."

From Greece

The saga is at an end

At least that’s what the bulk of the Greek press hopes. It took several months of big scares and market panic over the Greek debt to get Europe to “acquire a weapon”, reports the centre-left daily Ta Nea. "The weapon is now on the table, fully loaded and ready for us to use whenever we need it,” delights the daily in reference to the Greek bailout mechanism. On 11 April the eurozone member countries agreed on the amount to lend to Greece. "The verdict reads 45,” headlinesTa Nea, explaining that the “aid mechanism is the fruit of collaboration between the EU and IMF. The eurogroup members will provide a loan of €30 billion, and the IMF €15 billion, for the year 2010, at 5% interest.” "It was about time Europe pulled itself together,” editorialises To Ethnos, which has it on good authority that the IMF share is going to grow “to as much as €50 billion”. That piece of information made the headlines of Eleftherotypia, another left-wing daily, which calls it a “breath of fresh air for Greece”. The paper points out, however, that “above and beyond testing the markets, this remains a test for the country. The government’s austerity plan is causing widespread social discontent. The civil servants union has called out a strike for 22 April and is waiting to hear what the private-sector unions decide,” concludes Eleftherotypia.