He went on to add that support towards Greece on the refugee crisis is crucial for the rescue of the treaty.
At the same time he noted that the notion of a Grexit belongs in the past. “Not the German Chancellor nor the German FinMin ever wanted it”, he said.
Deficit of the Monetary Union
Concerning the crisis that many of the E.U. countries suffer he said: “We faced a situation that nobody wanted, not Northern, nor Southern Europe. Nevertheless the Monetary Union itself, as it was created at the Maastricht Treaty, has many shortcomings”.
He clarified that:”The common currency was not a wrong decision. From a geopolitical point of view it was the right idea. Yet today the deficits are clear and we haven't worked enough to delete them”.
Bailout contradictions
Regarding the ability of the Greek political system to handle the crisis, he said that in Germany “many said that the Greek governments would not be able to manage it” and further on, they commented that “they tried to solve it by putting the weight on the lower social strata, while the rich did not take enough of the burden”.
The second opinion in Germany, which was voiced with many doubts “pointed at the many contradictions of the program of Thessaloniki”.
The Ambassador also mentioned that Germany understands that the Greek people have paid a heavy price, while he added that “not all fiscal goals be achieved through heavy taxation”.
If the outer borders collapse…
When talking about the refugee crisis, P.Schoof pointed that: “if (E.U.'s) outer borders fail to withstand the pressure, then the Schengen treaty will somewhat stop to exist”. As he said there is a close relation between the open internal borders of the E.U. and the protection of the outer borders. In this case these borders are Greece's borders and thus the country cannot be left on its own.
On the refugee issue Greece and Germany share common views.
He also stressed that A.Merkel has faced a lot of criticism from her own party for the fact that she has allowed a large number of refugees, most of whom have come from Greece.
The Ambassador told his audience that “the E.U., and all of us, kept our eyes closed to the fact that Italy, Spain, and Greece were asked to bear the main burden of the refugee influx. We were stuck with Dublin. For years we did nothing and so we faced a peaking of the problem last summer”.
In the end he spoke of the possible ways to solve the refugee/migrant crisis. He noted that Germany believes that the solution lies on three levels: the fight against the trafficking networks, in which Turkey plays a crucial role and has recently vowed to adhere to the agreements, the fair distribution of the refugee burden between the member states and, thirdly, the change of the non-cooperative stance of the countries from eastern Europe.
C.N.