Running counter to the original spirit of cooperation between equals

Regarding Mr Sokel’s comments on my letter to the editor  (Sunday Mail, January 19 I would like to make the following points:

I quoted theOfficial Journal of the European Union to show that the European Central Bank (ECB) was ultimately responsible for the threat to withdraw ELA to Cypriot banks, and not the Central Bank of Cyprus.  The practical demonstration of ECB power was made apparent  during the March Eurogroup meetings when President Anastasiades was informed that the ECB would cut off ELA to the Cypriot banks if he did not agree to the haircut on deposits.

The Cyprus Mail April 2, 1013 reported that Joerg Asmussen, a member of the  ECB board,  threatened  “in what amounted to open blackmail that the ECB would pull the plug on emergency funds to both Laiki and the Bank of Cyprus.”

This pressure on the President as described above raises an interesting issue regarding the drastic changes in European legislative procedures which are unfolding under the auspices of the Eurogroup.

At one time the European legislative process was one in which member countries voted for specific laws and regulations which applied to all and for the benefit of the European Union as a whole. This has changed with the decisions taken relative to Cyprus and the other countries receiving Eurogroup financial assistance.

These countries (e.g., Cyprus) have had to agree to a wide number of intrusive economic measures dictated by the Eurogroup, many of them painful. The basis for such agreement is mainly financial rather than legal. Countries subject to such measures may disagree, as did President Anastasiades but they have little choice.

Either they go along with the directives of the Eurogroup and the periodic visits of the Troika Team or they do not receive the financial assistance they desperately require.

This financial assistance is not given all at once but doled out periodically over set time periods so that any backsliding by the recipients results in a financial cut off.

This may be acceptable treatment as between a bank and a borrower in financial difficulty but it runs counter to the original spirit of cooperation between equals on which the European Union was founded.

Europe is now divided into lender and borrower countries, the lenders issuing directives that lack democratic foundation. We shall hear more on this issue as the elections for the European Parliament approach this May.

 

Dr. Jim Leontiades, CIIM, Nicosia

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.