Yanis Varoufakis's Blog, page 129
March 14, 2017
Socialising androids – Two Project Syndicate op-eds & one Guardian commentary
Click here for my Project Syndicate op-ed in which I reply to Bill Gates’ proposal for a tax on robots, counter-proposing the idea first canvassed here of a universal basic dividend from a public share trust fund. See also this commentary in The Guardian.
By AnnMarie Welser and Brian Maguire | EURACTIV.com
Greec...
By AnnMarie Welser and Brian Maguire | EURACTIV.com
Greece’s economy suffered a new blow, contracting by 1.2% at the end of 2016, according to revised figures released earlier this week. The figures, published by the Greek statistics agency, Elstat, show it was the worst quarter since the summer of 2015, when the European Central Bank closed the Greek banks. The dramatic bank closures were viewed by many as part of the ‘Troika’ campaign to force Greece into a third bailout, complete with new austerity measures. But was closure process legal and within the ECB’s charter and mandate? ECB President Mario Draghi wasn’t sure; Draghi commissioned an independent legal opinion on this issue. Now, Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Minister of Finance, and Fabio De Masi, a German, Die Linke MEP, have launched a public campaign demanding the immediate publication of Draghi’s legal opinion. EURACTIV’s Brian Maguire spoke with Varoufakis and De Masi about ECB transparency, the limitations of its mandate, and reform of the eurozone after the Treaty of Rome 60th anniversary celebrations this month.
By AnnMarie Welser and Brian Maguire | EURACTIV.com
Gree...
By AnnMarie Welser and Brian Maguire | EURACTIV.com
Greece’s economy suffered a new blow, contracting by 1.2% at the end of 2016, according to revised figures released earlier this week. The figures, published by the Greek statistics agency, Elstat, show it was the worst quarter since the summer of 2015, when the European Central Bank closed the Greek banks. The dramatic bank closures were viewed by many as part of the ‘Troika’ campaign to force Greece into a third bailout, complete with new austerity measures. But was closure process legal and within the ECB’s charter and mandate? ECB President Mario Draghi wasn’t sure; Draghi commissioned an independent legal opinion on this issue. Now, Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Minister of Finance, and Fabio De Masi, a German, Die Linke MEP, have launched a public campaign demanding the immediate publication of Draghi’s legal opinion. EURACTIV’s Brian Maguire spoke with Varoufakis and De Masi about ECB transparency, the limitations of its mandate, and reform of the eurozone after the Treaty of Rome 60th anniversary celebrations this month.
March 7, 2017
Varoufakis and De Masi push for ECB transparency – euobserver
BRUSSELS, 8th March 2017
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has joined forces with the German left-wing MEP Fabio De Masi in a bid to clarify whether the European Central Bank (ECB) had a legal right to limit the liquidity of Greece’s banks in 2015.
The duo told journalists in Brussels on Wednesday (8 March) that they were collecting signatures for a petition to ECB president Mario Draghi, asking him to disclose two legal opinions commissioned by the bank.
The first study was ordered in February, before the ECB decided to limit the access of Greek banks to ECB funding and opted instead to open access to the emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) – a fund with more restrictive access conditions.
The decision was taken a few days after the radical left-wing Syriza party came to power, with Varoufakis as finance minister.
The second study, in June 2015, was about the ECB’s decision to freeze the amount of money available through the ELA after the Greek government’s decision to hold a referendum on the bailout conditions required by the country’s creditors.
The measure was taken over concerns that Greek banks would become insolvent because of the deadlock in bailout talks. It also put more pressure on the Greek government to accept the lenders’ conditions.
To avoid a bank run, where large numbers of people withdraw money from their deposit accounts at the same time, the government introduced capital controls. This meant that Greek people were only able to withdraw a maximum of €60 per day.
The measure prevented a capital run, but also put pressure on Athens to agree to creditors’ terms for a third bailout.
Varoufakis, who was finance minister at the time, said this was a breach of the independence of the bank.
“The ECB has the capacity to close down all the banks of a member state. At the same time, it has a charter which grants it – supposedly – complete independence from politics. And yet, there is no central bank, at least in the West, which has less independence of the political process,” Varoufakis said.
He said Draghi was “completely reliant” on the decisions of an “informal group of finance ministers”, referring to the fact that the Eurogroup, which gathers the finance ministers of the 19 eurozone countries, isn’t enshrined in EU treaties.
“It is apparent that Draghi didn’t feel that the was on solid legal ground when proceeding with the closing of Greek banks,” Varoufakis said.
When a Greek journalist noted that Varoufakis had himself signed the legal act that imposed capital controls, Varoufakis replied: “I signed the death certificate, I did not commit the murder.”
“On 21 June, the ECB made a decision which ensured that the following Monday morning banks would run out of cash, in other words that they would close. It was a decision by our government that because banks would anyway close as a result of the ECB decision, they would not open to avoid civic unrest and putting bank clerks in harm’s way,” he added.
He then called the journalist’s question a “campaign of misinformation” that blamed the victim, instead of coming to terms with “what really matters” – the question of the ECB’s independence.
Professional privilege
Fabio De Masi already asked Draghi for the opinions in September 2015. But the ECB chief, in a letter made public by the MEP, said the bank does not plan to publish the legal opinions because this would “undermine the ECB’s ability to obtain uncensored, objective and comprehensive legal advice, which is essential for well-informed and comprehensive deliberations of its decision-making bodies”.
“Legal opinions provided by external lawyers and related legal advice are protected by legal professional privilege (the so-called ‘attorney-client privilege’) in accordance with European Union case law,” Draghi said.
“Those opinions were drafted in full independence, on the understanding that they can only be disclosed by the addressee and only shared with people who need to know in order to take reasoned decisions on the issues at stake,” he added.
The campaigners are now collecting signatures for a freedom of information request. They said they will go to court if the ECB fails to fulfil their demands.
Around 25,000 people have already signed the petition, which was launched last month.
Supporters include French socialist presidential candidate, Benoit Hamon; German veteran social democrat, Gesine Schwan; and the co-chair of German left-wing party Die Linke, Katja Kipping.
March 6, 2017
The Guardian on the paperback edition of ‘And the Weak Suffer What They Must?’
Click here for The Guardian site. Or…
Writing a book should be a life-changing experience for its author. This book was no exception: it was as if, halfway through writing it, the subject matter jumped off the page and demanded a real-life response. I soon found myself in the belly of the beast I had been writing about.
I started researching and writing And the Weak Suffer What They Must? in response to a series of questions. Why is the European Union disintegrating (Brexit being the first symptom of its malaise)? Why is Europe so clearly failing to emulate the US, which also began life as a loose confederacy of fractious states before consolidating magnificently in response to its various existential crises?
While researching these questions my own country, Greece, was already becoming the sacrificial canary in the coalmine. This was an early warning that the EU was incapable of turning the 2008 financial crisis into a programme of consolidation, opting instead for a self-defeating mixture of authoritarianism and incompetence.
Soon after I finished the book’s sixth chapter, which tells the story of how countries like Greece were being marched off the cliff by self-defeating austerity policies, accelerating the EU’s fragmentation, all of a sudden duty called. On New Year’s Day 2015 I had to stop writing and throw myself into a short election campaign that would see me installed as Greece’s finance minister. My book’s subject matter had indeed jumped out of my laptop and demanded that I put, so to speak, my money where my mouth was.
During the six months I spent in government I strove to strike a deal that would be mutually beneficial for Greece and the EU – an agreement that would begin the healing process of a Europe already at an advanced stage of disintegration. Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt responded with indescribable brutality, as if intent on quickening the breakup of the EU.
By the summer of 2015, the writing was on the wall: Greece would be locked into a debtor’s prison and I, refusing to sign the surrender documents, resigned my ministry. The EU would again pretend that it had solved a crisis by throwing new debt into the bottomless pit of unpayable older debts. And the peoples of Europe would lose what little confidence they had left in the EU’s institutions.
Within weeks of Greece’s fresh humiliation, countless refugees were being washed up on our shores, and before long the EU had disgraced itself by signing a scandalous deal with Turkey that effectively bribed an increasingly authoritarian Turkish president, enabling European governments to violate international law concerning the rights and protection of refugees.
Freed from ministerial duties, I returned to my book convinced that my initial questions had become infinitely more urgent and that I could now bring a wealth of new insights to the subject. The book was completed during the summer of 2015, after the EU had lost its integrity by crushing Greece and while it was in the process of forfeiting its soul by abrogating its responsibilities to refugees.
When my manuscript was complete, I feared that British readers might find the book too distant from their daily concerns. David Cameron promptly put my mind to rest, however, by scheduling the EU referendum for June 2016. The British media was suddenly abuzz with parallels between Grexit and Brexit. Debates on the merits and future of the EU were raging. My book had unexpectedly found a mass British audience.
Within weeks, I was traversing Britain campaigning against Brexit. Audiences were puzzled: “How can you, given the way the EU treated you and your country, tell us that we should remain?” The confusion was not eased by Michael Gove and other Brexiters, who heaped praise on my book, mischievously presenting it as the best argument for Britain to leave the EU.
Suffice to say that those who think that Brexit will bring about closer links between the UK, the US and the rest of the world misunderstand the origins of the EU, the role of the US in piecing it together and the negative effects that the EU’s fragmentation is already having on the rest of the world.
Varoufakis and De Masi Press Conference at European Parliament – Wednesday 8th March 10.00
Varoufakis and De Masi demand publication of ECB legal opinion for the closure of Greece’s banksGreece’s former finance minister, with German MEP, to hold press conference Wednesday, March 8, to announce filing a vital Freedom of Information request to the ECB. (Click Brussels Press Conference DiEM25 Press Release for pdf version)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 8, 2017 ( 10:00 – 10:30 CET )
WHERE: Anna Politkovskaya Room, PHS 0A50 – European Parliament (Brussels)
RSVP: karim.khattab@europarl.europa.eu
LIVESTREAM: https://goo.gl/pyXkc8
Did the European Central Bank (ECB) act within its mandate when it shut down Greece’s banks in June 2015? Were the ECB’s actions that led to the imposition of capital controls in Greece legal? These are central questions to which DiEM25 co-founder and Greece’s former finance ministerYanis Varoufakis, and Die Linke member of the European parliament Fabio De Masi, want an answer.
The institution led by Mario Draghi was not certain about the legality of its actions at the height of the negotiations between the Greek government and its creditors in the summer of 2015 – to close a member state’s banks – so it commissioned a private law firm to examine whether those actions were legal. When De Masi approached the ECB president to obtain a copy of the private law firm’s legal opinion, Draghi rejected the MEP’s request on the grounds of ‘attorney-client privilege’.
Varoufakis and De Masi have joined forces to take this matter to the next level by filing a Freedom of Information (FOI) request before the ECB to make the legal opinion it commissioned public. The two will hold a livestreamed press conference on Wednesday, March 8 at 10am CET at the European Parliament in Brussels to explain their initiative.
The European people’s right to know
One of the foremost experts on European Law, Professor Andreas Fischer-Lescano, examined whether the ECB was right to refuse to release the private law firm’s opinion. In his view the ECBhas no case for withholding from MEPs and the citizens of Europe the legal opinion the ECB secured (and paid for using European taxpayers’ money) regarding its own conduct.
Broad support
Varoufakis and De Masi have secured support for their transparency initiative from a broad alliance of political figures, activists and intellectuals such as French presidential candidate Benoît Hamon and renowned US economists James Galbraith and Jeffrey Sachs. In addition, over twenty thousand people have already signed the online petition launched by DiEM25 to support the FOI request.
#TheGreekFiles Campaign
DiEM25 has launched a campaign to support Varoufakis’ and De Masi’s initiative to make this crucial legal opinion public.
In a statement, the pan-European democracy movement explained that because the ECB’s actions in 2015 led to the capitulation of the Greek government in favour of new austerity measures and significant losses of national sovereignty, the power of the ECB to shut down a member state’s banks in today’s Eurozone raises important questions about the democratic nature of our common institutions.
“We must all throw light on the lawfulness and propriety of ECB decision-making – beginning with this case – to give European democracy a chance, as well as to make the ECB less vulnerable to power politics,” the statement said.
Varoufakis – De Masi Press Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, March 8, 2017 ( 10:00 – 10:30 CET )
WHERE: Anna Politkovskaya Room, PHS 0A50 – European Parliament (Brussels)
RSVP: karim.khattab@europarl.europa.eu
LIVESTREAM: https://goo.gl/pyXkc8
#TheGreekFiles – Resources
CAMPAIGN SITE: https://diem25.org/thegreekfiles
PETITION: http://www.change.org/thegreekfiles
VAROUFAKIS VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qttt9OHiGG8
DE MASI VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFIvxYWbkfU
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: https://goo.gl/ndJWje
MEDIA INQUIRIES: press@diem25.org
February 27, 2017
Yanis Varoufakis on power, populism and the future of the EU
This interview preceded the launch of the Dutch chapter of DiEM25 in Paradiso, Amsterdam.
Yanis Varoufakis talks about Brexit, feminism and why he feels at home in Belfast – Viewdigital
By Brian Pelan on February 28, 2017 Latest news, VIEWdigital news
Freelance journalist and commentator Amanda Ferguson talks to economist and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis ahead of a recent Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DIEM25) event in Belfast.
Q: You have strong links with the island of Ireland. What do you like about the place, the people, and Belfast?
A: Well, I come from a place that has known suffering, civil war, persecution, ancient hatreds and yet it managed to create beautiful literature, music, cultural civilisation so in a sense I feel at home here.
Q When you first heard of the expected £500m cost to the taxpayer of the RHI ‘cash for ash’ scheme you said it could be “conspiracy or cock up” but increasingly you think it was a cock up. How does this financial scandal make Northern Ireland look to a wider audience, to an international audience?
A: The good news is that it hasn’t really travelled that far away from this isle which is good. I come from a country which has lots of scandals and I never felt good when I want to Malaysia or Australia and people knew about them. I think you should just find the political means by which to hold those who were responsible to account and move on and make sure you don’t do it again.
Q: You are a respected expert in your field and judged in that context but you also experience what many women do with regard to judgement of physical appearance. What is your reaction to this? Are you a feminist? Who are your female role models?
A: I am utterly a feminist in my disposition. I had a feminist grandmother in the 1920s, who was part of the suffragette movement in Egypt, Cairo, of all places, so there is a long tradition in my family. Look, the feminisation of male politicians who refuse to be macho is part and parcel of an attempt to undermine their credibility. This is what women have always felt and experienced so in that sense I feel very proud to have been treated in that demeaning way because it means that I must have done something right.
Q The main Irish republican and nationalist parties in NI campaigned to remain in the European Union. There has been some suggestion the leave result is a better result for Irish republicans who want reunification. Do you think it brings them closer to that ultimate goal presented these days as a new Ireland? Does the instability the leave result brings and the possible impact on the union mean it’s win-win for republicans?
A: As somebody who has been on the left for too long, I can tell you that I never really agreed with the Leninist dictum that things have to get worse before they get better so I reject that argument.
Q The left in Northern Ireland seems to be divided into a number of different groupings and it has been suggested they tend to spend time attacking each other rather than attacking the right? Why do you think that is? And what advice would you offer the left in NI?
A: To watch Life of Brian again because the opening scene is precisely the one you described – The Judean People’s Front versus the Liberation Front of Judea. We on the left are very good, we are a bit like the Christians, dividing and multiplying in many sects. It is about time to overcome this. This is what DIEM25 is, I am here, this is what our movement is all about. It is about not just leftists but also with progressive conservatives, with liberals, with sensible people who want to overcome this infinite capacity of human nature to create a mess out of something that could be handled quite rationally and humanely.
Q Do you believe President Donald Trump is a threat to the future safety of the world?
A: Absolutely.
Q You said in Brexit terms along the essentially invisible Irish border it “is not going to be business as usual”. Do you think it’s impossible for British PM Theresa May to achieve what she wants in terms of the single market/immigration and keep Ireland border check free?
A: Usually life is complicated enough to say one can never be sure but this is a question I can answer without any shadow of a doubt. She is making false promises that she will never be able to keep. There is no way she can achieve that.
Q Negotiating with Brussels was a negative experience for Greece. There is disagreement between the political parties over who should talk for Northern Ireland. Who do you think would best represent Northern Ireland’s interests?
A: I think the people of Northern Ireland.
Q You have been asked a lot about the impact of Brexit for NI and you say rather than indulge in predictions steps should be taken to prevent harm. What steps would you recommend?
A: Theresa May should file for an off the shelf agreement. You see, she is going to be bamboozled by what I call the EU runaround. She will talk to Juncker, Juncker will refer to Merkel. She will talk to Merkel, Merkel will refer her to Schauble. Schauble will refer her back so the only way of avoiding that is by avoiding having negotiations. The only way to avoid having negotiations is by taking an off the shelf agreement, a Norway style, EEA agreement, and saying I want that. They won’t be able to refuse her. And to do this using a good Brexit argument, the only strong, philosophically strong argument in favour of Brexit, is restoring national sovereignty to the House of Commons. Well, do it – restore national sovereignty to the House of Commons but which House of Commons should make the decision? Not this one. This one was not elected with a mandate to discuss Brexit because when they were elected they did not know Brexit was going ahead. The next one. To give the next parliament an opportunity to have this discussion. A minimalist Brexit now with an EEA agreement and then that is what will create the circumstances for Northern Ireland and Ireland to maintain the status quo for long enough to be able to create the process that would lead to a good solution for all the people in Ireland.
Q Economic-jobs figures published in the Republic of Ireland in recent weeks have been good. Does that prove the cautious way it dealt with the economic crash was better than what could be viewed as your radical, arguably failed, approach?
A: Not in the slightest. There was nothing radical in my approach. All I said was I am not going to take more money from European taxpayers when I know I can’t repay it. I think that is the duty of every finance minister, actually any citizen. If you can’t pay for your credit card don’t get another one to pay the first one. I don’t see what is radical about that. You can be extremely right wing and agree with that. It is not a left-wing position. In the case of Ireland it is quite different than the case of Greece but having said that I think that the people of Ireland have every right, and actually a duty to their history, to be very cross with Europe. The way Ireland was treated in 2009, the promiserial note will go down in history as a major assault on a nation by its central bank. Even if you think you have recovered don’t lose the rage because these things should never happen in a union of democratic states. We Greeks took a major hit because we were the first domino to fall and as a result of that Ireland was spared a much, much greater hit. People ask me questions concerning the relative performance of Greece and Ireland after the disaster and I say well, compare and contrast the degrees of austerity that we suffered with what Ireland suffered. We suffered more than twice the austerity of what Ireland suffered. Now we were first, the IMF in particular learned a lesson. They grossly underestimated the ill effects of the austerity they imposed upon us and as a result when it came to Dublin they were much, much more lenient. For instance, less than half the austerity and they did not reduce minimum wages. That is what spared Ireland. But still so many Irish families have lost people to immigration and not gained them again.It was an unnecessary social crisis that we must not forget and must not forgive those who ran us into the ground.
Q EU commissioner Frans Timmermans has said ROI needs to use “creativity” to ensure Brexit is as painless as possible, but must not engage in bilateral talks with London. What are your thoughts?
A: Whether we like it or not Ireland is part of the bloc but has to negotiate collectively with Britain. My great fear is that there will be no negotiations. That it will be a semblance of negotiations. I know that from personal experience. You can’t negotiate with Brussels. You negotiate for the right to negotiate and then you don’t negotiate about anything really. So, I think that Ireland is in a very difficult spot and it is up to Theresa May to overcome this Brexit at all costs fixation.
My view is that a sensible small c conservative solution would be for Britain to, immediately after triggering Article 50, go for a EEA Norway style agreement of six or seven years to create a space of time so that there can be sensible discussion, outside the constraints of the electoral cycle in the next coming two years, and then Ireland would have the opportunity to do the right thing by the people of Ireland both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland.
Twitter: @AmandaFBelfast
• DIEM25 describes itself as a pan-European, cross-border movement of democrats that have come together despite diverse political traditions – Green, radical left, liberal – in order to repair the EU before it disintegrates.
February 24, 2017
Yanis Varoufakis's Blog
- Yanis Varoufakis's profile
- 2351 followers
