The statement by the Prime Minister of Greece, if true, is a particularly stark indicator of the extent of the loss of Greece’s sovereignty over its own affairs thanks to the bailout loan agreements.
The issue in question concerns the contributions made by businesses and professionals to the relevant chambers of commerce. A legal provision due to come into effect in January 2015 will see the mandatory contributions replaced by voluntary support in a measure demanded by the troika. According to the reasoning by Greece’s lenders, the mandatory contributions amount to a tax on behalf of a third parties which places a significant burden on Greek businesses.
However the Hellenic chambers of commerce are strongly opposed to the scrapping of the mandatory contribution which they say will cripple the Greek chambers by doing away with their main source of funding. They point out that the contribution for members amounts only to 3.5 euros per month and in exchange the chambers provide important services for Greek businesses which would have to be replaced by the government if the chambers lose their funding. They say that far from helping Greek businesses, the new measure will seriously weaken an institution which promotes Greek competitiveness.
Their case is supported Richard Weber, president of Eurochambres, who spoke at meeting on Friday (link in Greek) about the issue hosted by the Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It was during his opening remarks that he revealed the details of his meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras the day before:
“Premiere Samaras expressed to me personally that he is pro chamber of commerce. But his hands are tied because he wants to get the money from the troika so he has to fulfill some standards that the troika gave to Greece. I asked him what is the solution? And he told me go to Ms Merkel and tell her to write to troika.”
Mr Weber can be heard making the comments regarding Mr Samaras at the 4.40 mark:
According to Mr Weber the move by the troika in Greece is part of a wider push to privatize chambers of commerce throughout Europe.
“In France the chamber of commerce had a very big amount of money in their pockets and as the government wants to get this money they have to change the status of this chamber of commerce. Same in Holland, same in Spain and some people are believing in Germany as well for this problem. That is the frame of why in Europe so many people are fighting against the chamber of commerce…They will privative the hotel chambers, the notary chambers, everything in France and that is their policy.”
Also opposed to the scrapping of the mandatory contributions for Greek chambers of commerce are 185 MPs who have signed a statement urging the repeal of the controversial provision.It is the first time in recent years that such a statement has enjoyed such cross-party support with MPs from governing PASOK and New Democracy as well as opposition parties SYRIZA, DIMAR and Independent Greeks joining forces.